BANCROFT 

LIBRARY 

<• 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


A  LIT  ING  ISSUE. 


BY   THE  AUTHOR  OF 


OUR    WILD 


"There  is,  perhaps,  no  one  thing  so  valuable  to  the  right 
progress  of  civilized  society  as  the  courage  of  sincere  individual 
opinion  ;  and,  as  regards  public  affairs,  the  man  who  tries  honestly 
to  form  an  accurate  conclusion,  and  bravely  to  maintain  and  ad 
vance  it,  without  counting  the  number  of  his  adversaries,  will  fulfil 
the  best  mission  of  a  citizen." — SENATOR  EDMUNDS. 


WASHINGTON; 
FRANCIS    B.    MOHUX. 

1882. 


EXPLANATORY. 


The  first  twelve  chapters  of  the  original  manuscript  of  my  book 
"  Our  Wild  Indians,"  (Worthington  &  Co,,  Hartford,  Conn.,)  were 
devoted  to  an  elaborate  discussion  of  the  Indian  Question.  These 
chapters  were  discarded  by  the  publishers  as  too  argumentative, 
and  not  within  the  scope  of  a  work  designed  to  furnish  to  the  vast 
reading  public  of  the  United  States  a  popular  account  of  the 
daily  life  of  our  Indians. 

The  facts  and  arguments  set  forth  in  that  MSS.  are  (in  my  opin 
ion)  of  too  much  importance  to  the  honor  of  the  Country  to  be 
lost ;  and  I  am  too  much  in  earnest  to  remain  silent  under  all  the 
wrongs  and  outrages  heaped  upon  the  Indian.  I  therefore,  in  this 
pamphlet  give  to  the  Country  the  matter  of  that  MSS.  revised  and 
greatly  condensed,  hoping  in  this  way  to  reach  a  class  of  thinking 
and  influential  men,  who  are  habitually  too  busy  to  read  large 
books. 

The  wording  of  some  portions  of  this  paper  is  identical  with 
that  in  "  Our  Wild  Indians."  That  book,  designed  to  be  a  minute 
and  careful  study  of  the  interior  life  of  the  Wild  Indians,  gives 
only  general  conclusions  as  to  their  management  and  ultimate  des 
tination.  This  pamphlet  gives  the  facts  and  arguments  on  which 
those  conclusions  are  based. 

RICHARD  I. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  M<><j  '20 


A  LIVING  ISSUE. 


BY  THE  AUTHOR  OF 


"OUR    WILZD    I  ^  DION'S." 


"There  is,  perhaps,  no  one  thing  so  valuable  to  the  right 
progress  of  civilized  society  as  the  courage  of  sincere  individual 
opinion  ;  and,  as  regards  public  affairs,  the  man  who  tries  honestly 
to  form  an  accurate  conclusion,  and  bravely  to  maintain  and  ad 
vance  it,  without  counting  the  number  of  his  adversaries,  will  fulfil 
the  best  mission  of  a  citizen." — SENATOR  EDMUNDS. 


WASHINGTON : 
FRANCIS   B.    MO  HUN. 

1882. 


: 


F./.FCF  OFT  LIZ 


THE  INDIAN  QUESTION . 


The  Government  of  the  United  States  has  never  had  a  settled,  well-de- 
lined  policy  towards  the  Indian.  Each  Administration  and  each  Congress 
seems  to  have  acted  in  variable  and  irresponsible  mood,  without  reference  to 
precedent,  or  even  to  right  and  justice,  intent  only  on  getting  rid  of  the 
special  vexing  question  of  the  hour  in  the  quickest  way,  and  with  the  least 
possible  trouble.  However,  a  careful  and  searching  study  of  the  subject 
develops  in  the  acts  of  the  Government,  some  faint  tracings  of  a  general 
idea,  and  since  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution  in  1787,  the  gen 
eral  features  of  such  policy  as  there  is,  may  be  outlined  thus  : 

First.  Government  assumption  of  entire  control  of  Indians,  as  distin 
guished  from  State  control. 

Second.  The  treaty  system  ;  recognition  of  the  sovereign  rights  of  Indian 
tribes  to  the  lands  occupied  by  them. 

Third.  Regulation  of  trade  and  intercourse  with  Indians. 
Fourth.  Eemoval  of  Indians  from  State  limits. 

The  ostensible  objects  of  this  policy  are  perfect  justice,  and  fair  dealing 
to,  and  ultimate  civilization  of  the  Indian,  and  security  to  the  white  set 
tlers.  The  real  result  of  the  policy  is  to  continue  the  Indian  in  his  original 
barbarism,  to  pauperize,  and  gradually  to  starve  and  exterminate  him.  This 
end  is  attained  at  the  yearly  cost  of  many  millions  of  money,  and  many 
lives  of  both  settlers  and  soldiers. 

On  the  recognition  of  the  independence  of  the  colonies  by  the  mother 
country,  each  claimed  to  be  natural  heir  to  the  full  sovereignty  previously 
exercised  over  both  soil  and  Indians  by  the  Government  of  Great  Britain. 
They  refused  to  acknowledge  or  recognize  any  Indian  title,  either  as  tribes 
or  as  individuals,  to  land  within  their  limits;  passing  laws  and  ordinances 
ignoring  the  Indian  claims  to  right  of  possession,  or  authority  to  sell  or 
dispose  of  land  in  any  way.  Under  the  Confederation  the  same  ideas  pre 
vailed,  each  State  managing  and  controlling  the  Indians  within  its  borders. 
It  was  only  when,  by  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  the  colonies 
became  a  nation,  that  the  General  Government  assumed  any  control  what 
ever  over  the  Indians,  and  this  assumption  came  about  as  it  were  by  acci 
dent. 

Several  of  the  colonies,  subsequently  Confederated  States,  claimed  to  own 
and  have  legitimate  jurisdiction  over,  vast  tracts  of  land  in  Ohio,  and  in 
the  regions  westward.  Th^se  claims  were  based  on  slight  foundation,  and 


t\OROl 


as  the  lands  had  not  been  properly  surveyed,  were  often  conflicting.  As 
possibly  the  easiest  way  out  of  all  the  difficulties,  the  States  were,  after 
much  haggling,  finally  induced  to  transfer  all  their  claims  to  the  General 
Government.  These  lands  were  then  occupied  by  several  tribes  of  Indians, 
the  control  of  which  having  now  passed  from  the  States  originally  holding 
it,  fell  naturally  into  those  hands  which  succeeded  to  the  sovereignty.  This 
control  the  Government  has  exercised  continuously  since  1787,  nearly  one 
hundred  years. 

THE  TREATY  SYSTEM. 

The  first  immigrants  who  landed  on  the  shores  of  what  is  now  the  United 
States,  planted  their  feeble  colonies  in  the  midst  of  numerous  and  warlike 
tribes.  Their  first  and  most  natural  impulse  was  to  make  some  bargain  or 
arrangement  in  the  nature  of  a  treaty,  with  the  aboriginal  possessors  of  the 
soil,  as  would  not  only  give  them  title  to  the  lands,  but  enable  them  to  live 
in  comparative  safety.  ^  It  is  true  that  foreign  nations  claimed  to  own  the 
country,  and  the  colonists  had  titles  to  land  from  the  rulers  of  those  nations, 
but  these  titles  would  have  availed  little  had  the  colonists  presumed  to  at 
tempt  the  establishment  of  their  claims  by  force.  They  were  "  wise  as 
serpents,"  and  immediately  on  landing,  proceeded  to  interview  the  chiefs 
of  neighboring  tribes.  These,  astonished  at  the  appearance  and  manners  of 
the  new  people  "  without  color,"  disarmed  of  apprehension  by  their  paucity 
of  numbers  and  plausible  tongues,  overcome  with  wonder  at  the  new  and 
curious  things  shown  them,  were  easity  persuaded  by  the  gifts  of  a  few 
muskets,  or  looking-glasses,  or  bright  colored  beads,  to  give  the  new  comers 
such  land  as  they  required,  and  their  promise  to  remain  friendly  and  faith 
ful.  Such  was  the  origin  of  the  treaty  system. 

In  almost  every  case,  these  treaties  were  first  violated  by  the  whites. 
Growing  stronger  and  more  aggressive,  the  colonies  pushed  the  Indian 
closer  and  closer,  until  the  poor  savage,  rendered  desperate,  flew  to  arms, 
was  beaten — driven  from  his  home,  and  his  lands  taken  possession  of  by  his 
former  friends  and  allies. 

I  have  never  been  able  to  understand  why  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  should  have  felt  it  necessary  to  perpetuate  a  system,  valuable  cer 
tainly  to  the  poor,  feeble  and  widely-separated  colonies,  but  the  continu 
ance  of  which  was  not  only  a  disadvantage  to  the  Government,  but  stulti 
fied  it.  The  United  States  of  America  claimed  to  be,  and  was  acknowl 
edged  by  the  civilized  world,  to  be  the  sovereign  power  over  a  portion  of 
North  America,  within  certain  fixed  limits.  It  succeeded  by  right  of  con 
quest  to  the  sovereignty  that  Britain  had  lost  by  her  defeat,  and  by  right  of 
voluntary  cession  to  the  powers  claimed  by,  and  recognized  as  belonging  to 
the  Confederate  States,  the  sovereignty  over  both  the  soil  and  its  inhabi 
tants.  Our  right  over  the  Indians  in  that  territory  was  not  even  a  right 
of  conquest,  it  was  simply  an  act  of  assumption.  Civilization  admitted  no 


rights  to  barbarism.  We  claimed  the  country  not  by  conquest  or  consent 
of  the  Indian  inhabitants,  but  in  spite  of  them.  "We  then  proceeded  to 
stultify  ourselves  by  making  treaties,  solemnizing  them  by  all  the  forms 
prescribed  by  the  Constitution,  with  the  numerous  petty  bands  and  tribes 
of  that  territory,  as  if  those  bands  and  tribes  were  independent  sover 
eignties.  If  the  United  States  did  not  own  the  lands,  and  if  these  treaties 
were  just  and  necessary,  then  the-subsequent  action  towards  the  Indians 
has  been  more  barbarous  than  anything  they  have  ever  done  against  the 
whites.  If  the  United  States  did  own  the  land,  then  the  whole  treaty 
system  is  murderous  folly  devised  by  the  Father  of  Mischief,  to  keep  up 
continual  trouble.  Whatever  horn  of  the  dilemma  be  chosen  is  of  little 
consequence  here.  The  barbarous,  or  the  foolish  policy,  has  been  contin 
ued,  and  is  in  full  force  and  apparently  high  favor  among  "  The  Powers," 
to  this  day. 

And  with  what  result  ?  I  will  venture  to  affirm  that  the  obligations  of 
no  one  treaty  made  with  Indian  tribes  within  twenty-five  years  have  been 
carried  out  by  the  Government  either  in  letter  or  in  spirit.  This  is  not 
only  true,  but  it  is  simply  impossible  in  such  a  country  as  ours,  that  it  could 
be  otherwise.  The  Government  makes  a  treaty  with  a  tribe.  The  Indians 
agree  to  give  up  certain  lands,  to  restrict  themselves  hereafter  to  certain 
defined  limits,  to  abstain  from  war  and  depredation.  The  Government 
agrees  to  pay  certain  fixed  annuities  in  provisions,  goods  or  money,  to  pre 
serve  faithfully  to  the  Indians  the  lands  within  the  new  boundaries.  Result 
— The  Government  does  not  pay  the  annuities,  but  by  negligence  connives 
at  its  sequestration  by  others,  and  leaves  the  Indian  to  starve  from  lack. of 
appropriations.  Gold  or  silver  is  discovered  within  the  limits  of  the  new 
reservation,  and,  in  an  incredibly  short  time,  the  country  is  overrun  by  a 
horde  of  hardy,  reckless,  frontiersmen,  pick  in  one  hand,  rifle  in  the  other, 
and  the  Indian  has  to  get  out. 

A  most  important  and  interesting  case  in  point,  is  shaping  its  course  at 
this  moment  of  writing.  When  the  Cherokees,  Chickasaws,  and  Choc- 
taws  were  removed  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi,  the  Government  set  aside 
for  their  use  a  magnificent  domain,  and  made  a  solemn  treaty  with  them 
that  they  should. have  the  land  "so  long  as  grass  grows  or  water  runs." 
The  territory  thus  forever  assigned  to  the  Indians  is  as  fine  a  country  as  is 
within  the  limits  of  the  United  States.  The  soil  is  excellent,  the  climate 
admirable.  It  is  larger  than  Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  Ehode  Island, 
New  York  and  New  Jersey,  united,  and  is  capable  of  comfortably  sup 
porting  ten  millions  of  whites.  It  is  now  exclusively  devoted  to  the  main 
tenance  of  less  than  seventy-five  thousand  Indians.  On  the  north  of  this 
territory,  and  bordering  on  Kansas,  is  a  strip  over  a  hundred  miles  wide, 
extending  in  length  across  the  breadth  of  the  territory  from  east  to  west, 
which  belongs  exclusively  to  the  Cherokees.  In  1879  this  strip  was  in 
vaded  by  organized  colonies  of  settlers  from  Kansas,  Missouri,  and  else- 


G 

where.     The  President  was  called  upon,  troops  were  ordered  out,  and  all 
white  interlopers  were  forcibly  expelled. 

But  this  vigorous  action,  so  natural  and  proper,  did  not  meet  the  views 
of  the  Cherokees.  The  whole  country  within  the  limits  described,  is  a  vast 
pasture  of  most  succulent  grasses.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  cattle  were 
grazing  upon  it,  and  the  Cherokees  were  taxing  the  owners  of  the  cattle  a 
certain  sum  per  head  per  year  for  the  privilege  of  grazing.  The  order  of 
the  President  took  at  once  several  hundred  thousands  of  dollars  a  year  from 
the  Cherokee  treasury.  The  Cherokees  therefore  sent  a  delegation  to  Wash- 
ngton,  and  the  order  was  modified  so  as  to  exempt  from  its  operation  all  cat 
tle  men  who  pay  tax  to  the  Cherokees,  and  have  a  permit  from  them. 

The  result  will  be  the  opening  to  settlement,  in  a  very  few  years,  of  that 
portion  of  the  Indian  Territory,  and  all  the  treaties  in  the  world  will  not 
prevent  it.  Every  settler  who  now  goes  there  will  take  a  few  cows,  get  a 
permit  from  the  Cherokees,  pay  his  tax,  build  his  house,  fence  and  plough 
>  his  land,  and  when  the  troops  come  to  eject  him,  he  will  flourish  his  Che 
rokee  permit  in  the  face  of  the  commanding  officer  and  "laugh  him  to 
scorn." 

Let  us  consider  the  modus  operandi  of  a  treaty.  An  Indian  tribe  is  in 
peaceful  possession  of  a  tract  of  country.  Into  its  beautiful  but  unknown 
wilds  the  venturous  trapper  first  made  his  way.  His  very  fearlessness 
probably  secured  immunity  from  danger,  and  after  a  brief  sojourn  he  vir 
tually  entered  the  tribe  by  alliance  after  their  custom  with  one  or  more 
squaws.  After  a  longer  or  shorter  period  the  hardy  and  ever  restless  pio 
neers  begin  to  drop  in.  Some  few  bring  white  wives,  the  majority  take 
Indian  wives.  As  their  numbers  increase  they  begin  to  show  the  contempt 
in  which  they  hold  their  Indian  landlords,  and  become  aggressive.  The 
Indians  threaten,  perhaps  make  war ;  the  result  is  the  same.  The  Gov 
ernment  promptly  steps  to  the  aid  of  its  citizens.  A  treaty  staves  off  the 
threatened  war  or  concludes  that  actually  waged. 

The  Indians  have  no  idea  of  values,  are  mere  babies  in  a  trade.  With 
some  "  glittering  generalities"  about  the  "Great  Father,"  a  few  gaudy 
presents,  and  the  promise  of  annuities,  the  Commissioners  wind  the  Indians 
about  their  fingers,  make  a  good  thing  for  the  Government  and  settlers, 
and  go  home  to  rest  from  their  labors  with  laurelled  brows  and  easy  con 
sciences. 

Every  treaty  made  with  Indians  has  been  opposed  by  at  least  a  minority, 
and  sometimes  by  a  large  majority  of  the  tribe  interested  ;  and  these  op 
ponents  are  always  dissatisfied  and  disposed  to  be  hostile  not  only  to  the 
whites  but  to  the  chiefs  by  whom  the  treaty  was  made. 

After  the  treaty  is  made  and  confirmed  some  speculator  finds  out  that 
there  is  a  valuable  tract  of  arable  or  timbered  land  within  the  limits  of  the 
new  reservation.  A  few  chiefs  are  bribed  into  agreement.  A  ring  is 
formed  ;  Government  is  coaxed  into  sending  out  a  new  Commission  ;  a  new 
treaty  is  made ;  the  lobby  gets  to  work  on  it,  and  another  slice  of  land  is 
taken  from  the  Indian. 


Even  this  process  has  sometimes  proved  to  be  too  slow,  or  not  sufficiently 
sure  for  the  purpose  of  the  speculators  or  the  Government.  Hereditary 
chiefs  have  occasionally  proved  refractory  and  refused  to  accede  to  the 
terms  proposed.  The  Government  has  not  hesitated  in  its  course,  but  de 
posing  the  refractory  chiefs,  has  set  up  others  with  whom  the  treaties  were 
concluded  in  due  form,  thus  actually  performing  the  farce  of  concluding  a 
solemn  treaty  to  which  the  United  States  were  party  of  both  parts. 

The  last  treaty  with  the  Pottowatomies  is  a  notable  example  of  this.  The 
Commissioners  appointed  to  conclude  the  treaty,  having  notified  the  Gov 
ernment  that  the  chiefs  refused  to  treat,  were  ordered  to  depose  them  and 
appoint  others  who  would  make  such  a  treaty  as  the  Government  desired. 
Our  present  title  to  the  Black  Hills  rests  on  a  similar  procedure ;  and  the 
terrible  war  with  the  Seminoles  in  Florida,  costing  the  country  millions  in 
money  and  many  valuable  lives,  was  brought  on  by  the  attempt  of  the 
United  States  authorities  to  depose  those  chiefs  who  refused  to  make  treaties 
distasteful  to  them.  The  faith  of  Treaties  !  ! 

With  our  Government  the  treaty  system  means  the  taking  advantage  of 
the  ignorance  or  the  greed  of  the  chiefs,  or  the  ambition  of  individuals  of 
tribes.  It  is  a  fraud  in  its  inception,  and  in  its  consummation. 


Though  solemnly  binding  itself  by  treaty  to  do  so,  the  Government  takes  no 
adequate  steps  to  prevent  the  encroachment  of  whites  upon  Indian  territory. 
The  greed  of  the  individual  Indian  will  cause  him  to  sell  his  daughter  to  a 
white  man.  That  man  while  claiming  protection  from  the  Government, 
and  all  his  rights  as  a  white,  yet  becomes  a  part  of  the  tribe  ;  he  draws  ra 
tions  for  his  wife  and  children,  as  Indians ;  he  builds  himself  a  house  on 
Indian  ground,  from  which  Government  has  promised  by  treaty  that  he 
shall  be  excluded  ;  he  takes  advantage  of  the  improvidence  of  the  Indians 
to  buy  up  their  surplus  rations  in  their  day  of  plenty,  to  sell  them  back  at 
enormous  profits  in  their  day  of  want  ;  he  makes  himself  a  power  among 
them  to  their  constant  injury  and  to  the  detriment  of  the  Government.  He 
becomes  rich,  gets  special  acts  through  Congress  for  the  benefit  of  his  half- 
breed  children,  and  not  unfrequently  as  he  grows  old,  he  returns  to  civil 
ization,  to  a  wife  and  family  in  the  States,  takes  a  prominent  position  in 
society,  obtains  appointment  on  Indian  Commissions,  and  is  looked  up  to 
as  an  authority  on  all  Indian  matters. 

At  this  moment,  almost  every  agency  is  surrounded  by  the  houses  of 
these  men,  and  they  may  be  seen  on  ration-day,  buying  here,  for  one  dollar, 
a  sack  of  flour  which  cost  the  Indian  Department  seven  or  eight  dollars  to 
deliver,  and  there,  a  sack  of  corn  on  similarly  favorable  terms. 

Even  when  the  Executive  branch  of  the  Government  is  really  active  and 
earnest  in  its  efforts  to  protect  the  Indian  in  his  rights,  it  generally  fails 
through  the  connivance  of  some  other  branch.  The  opening  of  the  Black  Hills 
is  an  admirable  exemplification  of  this  fact,  and  of  the  way  in  which  the 


8 

thing  is  done.  Gold  had  been  found  in  abundance  in  the  Black  Hills, 
and  though  it  was  Indian  country,  white  people  flocked  to  it  from  all 
quarters. 

Section  2150,  Eevised  Statutes,  authorizes  the  President  to  use  "  the  mili 
tary  force  of  the  United  States,  in  the  apprehension  of  every  person  who 
may  be  in  the  Indian  country  in  violation  of  law,  in  conveying  him  imme 
diately  from  the  Indian  country  by  the  nearest  convenient  and  safe  route, 
to  the  civil  authority  of  the  territory  or  judicial  district  in  which  such 
person  shall  be  found,  to  be  proceeded  against  in  due  course  of  law."  Sec 
tion  2148,  provides,  "  if  any  person  who  has  been  removed  from  the  Indian 
country,  shall  thereafter,  at  any  time,  return  or  be  found  within  the  Indian 
country,  he  shall  be  liable  to  a  penalty  of  one  thousand  dollars." 

In  August,  1875,  the  Black  Hills  were  swarming  with  people.  Hun 
dreds  of  men,  evading  the  guards  set  around,  had  already  gained  access  to 
their  fastnesses,  and  were  engaged  in  prospecting  and  mining,  many  of 
them  with  assurance  of  good  returns.  Every  day  the  troops  arrested  some 
of  these  men,  but  under  the  law,  the  arrest  amounted  to  nothing  except  the 
annoyance  and  loss  of  time.  The  prisoners  were  forwarded  to  the  nearest 
military  post,  and  thence  turned  over  to  the  civil  authorities,  "  to  be  pro 
ceeded  against  in  due  course  of  law." 

Curiously  enough,  that  respect  and  obedience  to  law  and  order  which  is 
so  marked  by  a  feature  of  our  military  establishment,  seem  totally  lacking  < 
in  the  "  civil  authorities."  The  prisoners  turned  over  to  them  were  imme 
diately  released  without  even  bail  for  future  good  behavior.  Though 
hundreds  of  men  were  arrested,  removed,  and  turned  over  to  the  civil  au 
thorities,  not  one  was  punished  or  even  detained.  They  were  at  once  set 
at  liberty,  and  immediately  started  again  for  the  Hills.  One  man  said  to 
me,  "  I  have  been  captured  and  sent  out  from  the  Hills,  four  times,  besides 
coming  out  voluntarily  under  Crook's  proclamation.  I.  give  the  troops 
more  trouble  in  catching  me  each  time,  and  I  guess  I  can  stand  it  as  long 
as  they  can." 

The  President  was  finally  obliged  to  give  up  the  attempt  to  enforce  the  law. 
The  Black  Hills  were  occupied  by  whites,  and  is  now  a  thickly  settled  and 
thriving  portion  of  the  country. 

A  Government  constituted  as  ours,  resting  on  a  popular  basis,  with  an 
immense  extent  of  unorganized  country,  where  there  are  no  settlements, 
and  consequently  no  magistrates  or  other  law  officers,  and  with  a  popular 
repugnance  to  trusting  such  duties  to  officers  of  the  army,  amounting  al 
most  to  an  insanity,  cannot  expect  or  hope  to  keep  the  faith  of  its  treaties 
with  Indians,  by  preventing  the  encroachment  of  whites.  Solemnly  to 
covenant  to  do  that  which  we  know  we  cannot  do,  is  a  fraud  and  a  crime. 
The  Government  is  guilty  of  that  fraud,  and  that  crime,  in  every  treaty 
made  with  the  Indians  for  twenty-five  years  past. 

Of  the  one  hundred  and  ten  tribes  now  on  reservations,  seventy-five 
are  there  by  provisions  of  treaties ;  sixteen  by  Executive  order  ;  eight  by 


9 

act  of  Congress ;  four  by  act  of  Congress  backed  by  Executive  order ;  and 
three  by  order  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  It  would  seem,  therefore, 
that  the  treaty  system  is  not  looked  upon  even  by  the  authorities  as  a  neces 
sity.  It  is  not  a  convenience,  and  its  continued  use  seems  to  be  simply  a 
matter  of  habit. 

Five  years  ago,  a  law  was  passed  prohibiting  any  further  contracts  by 
treaty  with  Indian  tribes.  This  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  but  our  re 
lations  with  nearly  all  of  the  tribes  are  governed  by  treaties  made  before 
the  passage  of  that  law.  Ever}'  one  of  these  treaties  should  be  abrogated 
and  the  Indians  brought  directly  under  control  of  the  Government,  fed, 
cared  for,  protected,  and  made  individually  responsible,  each  for  his  own 
crimes  and  misdemeanors. 

The  treaty  system  is  a  double  crime — a  crime  against  the  Indians,  a 
crime  against  the  Government.  In  the  interests  of  good  morals  and  good 
faith,  let  it  be  discontinued. 

THIRD.— KEGULATION  OF  TRADE  AND  INTERCOURSE. 

All  the  laws  for  the  government  and  protection  of  the  Indians,  and  gov 
ernment  of  the  Indian  Territory,  are  included  in  chapters  3  and  4,  Title 
28  Revised  Statutes.  Of  the  forty-six  sections,  twenty-nine  were  enacted 
as  laws  during  or  prior  to  1834.  The  Indian  question  of  that  day  was  as 
little  like  the  Indian  problem  of  the  present  day,  as  can  well  be  conceived, 
yet  the  laws  governing  the  two  are  substantially  the  same. 

From  the  first  landing  on  Plymouth  Rock  to  the  present  day,  there  has 
never  been  a  question,  (not  even  that  of  slavery,)  of  more  grave  and  con 
tinued  importance  to  the  whole  people  of  this  country  than  this  Indian 
question.  The  problem  constantly  varies  with  the  ever  varying  conditions 
of  its  surroundings,  and  it  is  almost  inconceivable  that  intelligent  legisla 
tors  should  have  been  so  careless,  or  so  apathetic,  as  not  to  see  that  these  vary 
ing  phases  require  varying  treatment. 

It  is  conceded,  to  avoid  argument,  that  the  laws  for  the  management  of 
Indians  up  to  1884  were  adapted  to  the  end  designed.  I  propose  to  ex 
amine  their  working  at  the  present  time. 

An  examination  of  the  map  will  show  better  than  words  the  wonderful 
changes  which  have  taken  place.  In  1834,  when  most  of  the  laws  regu 
lating  Indian  affairs  were  enacted,  the  whole  of  the  vast  region  from  about 
the  93°  meridian,  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  was  really  and  truly  Indian  country. 
More  than  two-thirds  of  the  whole  area  now  constituting  the  territory  of 
the  United  States  was  in  full  possession  and  occupancy  of  Indians  alone. 
The  "  outskirts  of  civilization  "  extended  in  an  irregular  North  and  South 
line  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  British  possessions.  Emigration  was 
advancing  westward  with  slow  but  steady  tread,  pushing  the  Indian  be 
fore  it.  This  pressure,  light  at  first,  gradually  increased  until  becoming 
intolerable  it  resulted  in  an  Indian  war.  The  history  of  those  times  will 

2 


10 

show  periodical  outbreaks,  separated  by  longer  or  shorter  intervals  of 
peace.  Then  the  country  had  what  might  properly  be  called  an  Indian 
frontier.  Then  there  was  an  Indian  country,  for  which  Congress  could 
legislate  understandingly,  and  so  as  to  be  understood  by  others. 

The  Indians  were  under  strong  tribal  governments,  and  were  kept  to 
gether  by  the  chiefs.  They  required  no  support  from  the  United  States 
Government,  the  plains  being  coverd  with  buffalo  and  other  large  game, 
which  supplied  all  their  needs.  Not  being  obliged  constantly  to  wander  in 
search  of  food,  their  habits  were  less  nomadic,  their  camps  more  perma 
nent  than  at  present.  The  chiefs  held  the  tribes  under  their  own  eyes,  and 
if  treaties  were  made  with  the  whites  they  had  the  power  and  influence  to 
enforce  their  fulfilment.  There  was  no  cause  of  rupture  or  disagreement 
except  that  one  grand  cause  already  mentioned,  the  pressure  of  the  tide  of 
emigration  which,  though  constant,  led  only  to  periodical  difficulty. 

The  discovery  of  gold  in  California  in  1849,  and  subsequently  near  Pike's 
Peak,  and  in  all  the  ranges  of  the  Kocky  Mountains,  changed  very  greatly 
the  aspect  of  affairs;  but  it  remained  for  the  completion  of  the  Pacific  Kail- 
roads,  and  the  immense  increase  of  emigration  consequent  upon  the  close 
of  the  war  of  the  Kebellion,  completely  to  surround  and  isolate  the  tribes, 
and  to  bring  the  problem  to  its  aspect  at  this  present  moment. 

Note  again  the  difference.  In  1834  the  Indians  occupied  more*  than  two- 
thirds  the  whole  area  now  the  territory  of  the  United  States.  In  1882  he 
occupies  less  than  one-fourteenth.  In  1834,  the  Indian  country  was  con 
tinuous,  and  almost  unlimited,  all  West  of  a  well  defined  North  and  South 
line,  along  which  only  did  white  and  Indian  come  in  contact.  In  1882 
the  Indians  are  in  comparatively  restricted  areas,  and,  generally,  entirely 
surrounded  by  whites.  In  1834,  the  sole  disturbing  cause  between  Indians 
and  whites  was  the  constant  westward  pressure  of  the  latter.  In  1882  that 
pressure  is  infinitely  increased,  and  comes  from  every  direction,  bringing 
other  disturbing  causes  of  every  grade  and  shade.  In  1834  the  buffalo  ap 
peared  inexhaustible.  In  1882  the  food  supply  is  the  paramount,  almost 
the  sole  question  of  Indian  life. 

I  have  already  said  that  in  those  days,  the  buffalo  supplied  all  the  needs 
of  the  Indian.  This  animal  was  to  the  Indians  all,  and  more,  than  the 
bamboo  to  the  East  Indian,  or  the  bread  fruit  to  the  South  Sea  Islander.  It 
furnished  food,  clothing,  bedding,  residence,  horse  equipments,  everything 
necessary  for  a  comfortable  daily  life.  The  Indian,  however,  desired  luxu 
ries,  things  which  he  could  not  make  for  himself;  blankets,  cooking  uten 
sils,  looking  glasses,  paints,  baubles,  &c. 

Up  to  within  a  few  years,  the  treaties  had  not  a  word  to  say  about  food  ; 
but  it  was  invariably  stipulated,  that  the  annuities  due  under  the  treaties 
should  be  paid  in  coin,  or  in  merchandise.  Congress,  therefore,  in  1834, 
passed  laws  governing  the  purchase  and  delivery  of  such  merchandise, 
which  we  may  concede  were  as  justly  applicable  to  the  then  conditions  of 
the  problem,  as  any  that  might  have  been  devised.  Those  same  laws  are 


11 

on  the  "Statute  book,  (Sections  2081  to  2094,  inclusive),  and  in  full  force  and 
operation  at  this  day.  The  buffalo  is  practically  extinct.  The  question 
with  the  Indian  now,  is  not  finery,  but  food  ;  not  of  the  adornment  of  his 
person,  but  of  filling  his  famished  stomach.  Under  the  provisions  made 
when  food  was  not  the  paramount  object  of  life,  great  quantities  of  mer 
chandise,  clothing,  &c.,&c.,are  yearly  sent  to  the  Indians.  It  is  a  criminal 
waste  of  money.  Criminal  because  the  Indian  does  not  want  the  merchan 
dise,  and  does  want  something  to  eat. 

*##•*#•*•**•* 
Section  2117,  Kevised  Statutes,  another  enactment  of  1834,  provides  that 
"  every  person  who  drives  or  conveys  any  stock  of  horses,  mules,  or  cattle, 
to  range  and  feed  on  any  land  belonging  to  any  Indian,  or  Indian  tribe, 
without  the  consent  of  such  tribe,  is  liable  to  a  penalty  of  one  dollar  for 
each  animal  of  such  stock." 

When  this  law  was  passed  it  had  a  definite  meaning.  There  was  a  fron 
tier,  and  if  cattle  were  found  on  the  lands  of  Indian  tribes,  it  was  probably 
because  they  were  driven  there.  Now,  the  comparatively  small  Indian 
reservations  are  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  territory  occupied  by  whites. 
The  buffalo  have  been  replaced  by  equal,  if  not  greater  numbers  of  cattle, 
whose  owners  are  scouring  the  country  far  and  near  for  grazing  ground  for 
their  herds.  Boundary  lines  are  nothing  to  them.  They  build  their  huts, 
plough  their  fire-guards,  and  herd  their  cattle,  far  inside,  the  lines  of  In 
dian  reservations,  with  "  nobody  to  molest  or  make  them  afraid." 

For  whose  business  is  it?  The  United  States  Marshals,  and  Indian 
agents  are  not  required  by  law  to  expel  them.  Trespassers  are  "  liable  " 
to  a  fine  if  somebody  brings  suit,  but  who  will  voluntarily  take  upon  him 
self  the  vexations,  annoyances,  and  delays  of  the  law,  unless  his  own  in 
terests  are  touched  ? 

It  is  true,  that  the  Indian  complains  most  bitterly  that  his  game  is  killed 
or  driven  off;  the  grazing  grounds  that  he  needs  for  his  own  stock,  occu 
pied  by  vast  numbers  of  cattle,  guarded  by  reckless  and  dangerous  white 
men,  but  his  complaints  are  as  idle  wind.  At  this  moment,  I  will  venture 
to  affirm,  that  there  are  over  fifty  thousand  head  of  cattle  peacefully  grazing 
on  the  Cheyenne  aud  Arrapahoe  reservation,  whose  owners  are  white  in 
truders. 

Besides  these,  there  are  other  classes  of  men  who  possess  and  hold  great 
herds  on  Indian  reservations.  For  some  fifteen  years  past,  the  cattle  busi 
ness  has  been  extremely  lucrative,  and  hundreds,  thousands,  of  men  have 
made  fortunes,  even  though  starting  with  little  capital.  So  many  men 
have  rushed  into  the  business,  that  the  grazing  land  of  the  whole  vast  un 
occupied  wilderness  is  too  small  to  accommodate  them.  Until  within  a  few 
years,  the  common  rabble  have  been  deterred  from  trespass  on  reservations, 
by  the  possibilities  of  that  word  "  liable,"  and  the  classes  referred  to  have 
had  it  all  their  own  way. 


12 

The  first-class  is  the  contractors.  A  man  gets  a  contract  for  furnishing 
beef  to  an  Indian  agency  or  military  post  on  the  reservation.  He  seizes 
the  glorious  opportunity.  The  range  is  perfect  and  unlimited,  worth  to 
him  at  least  two  dollars  a  year  per  head,  for  all  the  cattle  herded  on  it,  and 
he  has  undivided  and  unquestioned  use  of  it.  For  every  head  he  expects 
to  kill  in  filling  his  contract,  he  will  put  ten,  twenty,  or  more  on  the  reser 
vation. 

Another  privileged  class  is  the  Indian  traders.  No  special  excuse  seems 
to  be  necessary  in  their  case.  They  have  the  permission  of  the  Indian 
Commissioner  to  trade  with  the  Indians,  and  this  seems  to  cover  the  whole 
ground  and  to  include  all  other  rights  and  privileges.  These  two  classes 
have  large  herds  on  the  reservations,  and  make  a  fat  thing  on  their  cattle, 
exclusive  of  the  profits  of  their  legitimate  business.  The  Indians  growl 
and  complain  of  these  trespassers,  and  often-times  accuse  their  agent  of  be 
ing  a  partner,  or  receiving  a  share  in  the  profits  in  consideration  of  his 
silence  and  inaction  ;  but  they  can  prove  nothing,  and  their  "blow  out  " 
of  ill  temper  is  only  so  much  waste  steam. 

But  there  is  yet  another  class  by  and  through  whom  the  crowning  tri 
umph  over  the  law  and  the  Indian  is  achieved.  This  is  the  squaw  men  ; 
i.  e. ,  white  men  who  have  taken  squaws,  and  thus  allied  themselves  to  the 
tribes.  No  law  prohibits  an  Indian  from  owning  and  herding  on  his  reser 
vation  any  number  of  cattle.  The  squaw-men  ranking  as  Indians,  and 
having  all  rights  and  privileges  as  such,  can  hold  on  the  reservation  as 
many  cattle  as  they  please.  A  white  man  with  a  large  herd  can  secure  the 
right  to  herd  ad  libitum  on  an  Indian  reservation  by  simply  buying  a 
squaw.  Or  should  his  taste  rebel  against  such  action,  he  has  only  to  give 
a  bill  of  sale  of  his  cattle,  (fraudulent  of  course,)  to  some  squaw  man,  and 
thus  by  the  payment  of  a  few  dollars,  secure  untaxed  freedom  of  range  on 
the  reservation.  I  am  sure  I  am  well  within  the  mark  when  I  say  that 
over  two  hundred  thousand  head  of  cattle  are  at  this  moment  held  in  In 
dian  Territory  by  and  through  squaw-men. 


Section  2137  Eevised  Statutes,  "  Every  person  other  than  an  Indian,  who, 
within  the  limits  of  any  tribe  with  whom  the  United  States  have  existing 
treaties,  hunts  or  traps,  or  takes  and  destroys  any  peltries  or  game,  except 
for  subsistence,  in  the  Indian  country,  shall  forfeit  all  the  traps,  guns  and 
ammunition  in  his  possession,  used  or  procured  to  be  used  for  that  purpose, 
and  all  peltries  so  taken,  and  shall  be  liable  in  addition  to  a  penalty  of  five 
hundred  dollars." 

To  one  cognizant  of  the  facts  nothing  but  ocular  demonstration  could 
possibly  prove  that  there  is  any  such  law  on  the  statute-book. 

The  fur  trade  of  North  America  has  founded  and  built  up  some  of  the 
most  colossal  fortunes  in  England,  France,  and  America. 


18 

When  I  first  went  to  the  "  Far  West,"  nearly  thirty-four  years  ago,  the 
trapper  was  still  an  institution.  Generally  alone,  sometimes  in  couples, 
rarely  in  more  numerous  companies,  they  ranged  the  whole  country,  wher 
ever  furs  and  peltries  were  to  be  had,  taking  each  year  sufficient  to  make  a 
trade  so  immense  that  great  cities  like  St.  Louis  may  be  said  to  have  been 
built  upon  it. 

The  presence  and  operations  of  these  trappers  in  the  Indian  territories 
were  perfectly  well-known  in  1834,  when  Section  2137  was  enacted  into  a 
law.  The  men  themselves  cared  nothing  for  their  "  liability,"  and  the 
Government  never  took  any  steps  to  enforce  the  law. 

Until  the  Pacific  Kailroads  had  penetrated  to  the  heart  of  the  great  game 
regions  of  the  west,  hunting  as  a  means^of  livelihood  was  not  much  prac 
tised  by  white  men.  Unless  the  weather  was  exceptionally  cold,  the  meat 
was  likely  to  spoil  before  it  could  be  got  to  market.  The  building  of  the 
Union  and  Central  Pacific  Railroads  employed  an  army  of  men,  graders, 
track  layers,  tie  cutters,  bridge  builders,  freighters,  &c.,  &c.,  and  as  the 
country  was  an  absolute  wilderness,  all  depended  for  their  supply  of  fresh 
meat  on  game  alone,  the  contract  price  of  which  was  generally  ten  cents  a 
pound. 

With  such  profits  in  prospect,  the  trappers  quickly  changed  their  business, 
discharge^!  their  Indian  wives,  and  flocked  to  the  railroads  to  obtain  con 
tracts  for  supplying  game.  Venturous  spirits  from  all  parts  of  the  world 
soon  became  engaged  in  the  lucrative  enterprise. 

This  business  lasted  but  a  few  years,  but  the  completed  railroads  now 
gave  quick  transit  to  market  for  all  game  killed,  and  the  slaughter  went  on, 
and  goes  on.  From  every  depot  of  every  railroad  that  penetrates  the  game 
regions,  and  through  all  the  months  from  October  to  March,  hunting  par 
ties  in  wagons  or  with  pack  mule?,  scour  all  the  country  and  kill  the  game  ; 
the  only  limit  to  their  operations  being  the  possibility  of  getting  the  game 
unspoiled  to  the  railroad. 

In  1872  some  enemy  of  the  buffalo  race  discovered  that  their  hides  were 
merchantable,  and  could  be  sold  in  the  market  for  a  goodly  sum.  The 
Union  Pacific,  Kansas  Pacific  and  Atchison,  Topeka,  and  Santa  Fe  rail 
roads,  soon  swarmed  with  "  hard  cases  "  from  the  East,  each  excited  with 
the  prospect  of  a  buffalo  hunt  that  would  pay.  By  wagon,  on  horseback, 
and  a-foot,  the  pot-hunters  poured  in,  and  soon  the  unfortunate  buffalo  was 
without  a  moment's  peace  or  rest.  Though  hundreds  of  thousands  of  skins 
were  sent  to  market  they  scarcely  indicated  the  slaughter.  From  want  of 
skill  in  shooting,  and  want  of  knowledge  in  preserving  the  hides  of  those 
slain,  on  the  part  of  the  green  hunters,  one  hide  sent  to  market  represented 
three,  four,  or  even  five,  dead  buffalo.  During  the  three  years,  1872,-'3,-'4, 
at  least  five  millions  of  buffalo  were  slaughtered  for  their  hides. 

Less  than  ten  years  ago  the  Indian  had  an  ample  supply  of  food,  and 
could  support  life  without  the  assistance  of  the  Government.  Now,  every 
thing  is  gone,  he  is  reduced  to  the  condition  of  a  pauper  ;  and  all  this  in 
violation  of  law  and  contravention  of  treaties. 


14 

The  authorities  have  known  of  these  things  all  the  time.  The  law 
against  the  slaughter  of  game  was,  and  is,  on  the  statute  book.  The  atten 
tion  of  Congress  has  again  and  again  been  called  to  its  violation,  once  by 
the  Lieutenant-General  of  the  Army,  but  no  attention  has  ever  been  paid 
to  these  appeals.  The  wrongs  were  only  against  the  Indian.  He  had  no 
vote,  no  representation,  no  redress  in  the  courts,  and  no  man  of  position 
and  political  power  was  magnanimous  enough  to  be  his  advocate. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  carelessness  and  inconsistency  of  the  legislation  on 
behalf  of  the  Indians,  I  will  here  draw  attention  to  one  fact.  In  1870, 
when  the  plains  were  covered  with  buffalo,  and  almost  all  the  tribes  could 
subsist  by  the  chase,  the  sum  appropriated  for  the  Indians,  was  about  seven 
and  one  half  millions  of  dollars.  In  1879,  when  the  buffalo  and  all  large 
game  was  almost  entirely  gone,  when,  in  violation  of  the  law,  the  reserva 
tions  had  been  hunted  again  and  again  by  white  men  until  nothing  was 
left,  and  the  Indians  were  reckless  from  absolute  starvation,  the  sum  appro 
priated  was  about  five  milllions. 

These  Indians  are  actually  prisoners.  They  have  many  bad,  but  some 
good  traits,  and  among  the  last,  is  their  wonderful  patience  under  trial,  mis 
fortune,  and  suffering.  They  submit  quietly  to  more  oppression  and  ill- 
treatment  than  would  any  other  people.  They  are  brave  and  warlike. 
Their  inaction  is  simply  patience.  Is  it  honorable  to  impose  on  them  be 
cause  we  have  the  power,  and  they  submit  to  our  injustice  ?  We  have  seen 
what  a  handful  of  Cheyennes  or  Apaches  can  do  when  goaded  to  despera 
tion  by  starvation  and  ill  treatment.  Is  it  policy  to  drive  to  extremity  men 
who  are  capable  of  such  deeds  and  such  sacrifices  ? 


Sections  2128  to  2133  Re  vised  Statutes,  regulate  the  mode  in  which  trade 
with  Indians  may  be  legally  carried  on  by  white  men. 

Section  2129. — "  No  person  shall  be  permitted  to  trade  with  any  of  the 
Indians  of  the  Indian  country,  without  a  license  therefor  from  a  Superin 
tendent  of  Indian  Affairs,  or  Indian  agent  or  sub-agent ;  which  license 
shall  be  issued  for  a  term  not  exceeding  two  years,  for  the  tribes  east  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  not  exceeding  three  years  for  the  tribes  west  of  that  river." 

Section  2128. — "  Any  loyal  person,  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  of  good 
moral  character,  shall  be  permitted  to  trade  with  any  Indian  tribe  upon 
giving  bond  to  the  United  States  in  the  penal  sum  of  not  less  than  five  nor 
more  than  ten  thousand  dollars,  Avith  at  least  two  good  sureties  to  be  ap 
proved  by  the  superintendent  of  the  district  within  which  said  person 
wishes  to  trade,  or  by  the  United  States  district  judge,  or  district  attorney 
for  the  district  in  which  the  obligor  resides,  renewable  each  year,  condi 
tioned  that  such  person  will  faithfully  observe  all  laws  and  regulations 
made  for  the  government  of  trade  and  intercourse  with  the  Indian  tribes, 
and  in  no  respect  violate  the  same." 


15 

Section  2129,  was  enacted  into  a  law  in  1834  ;  Section  2128,  was  so  en- 
acted  in  1866.* 

It  will  be  specially  noted  that  Section  2128,  makes  a  complete  change  in 
the  mode  by  which  a  man  may  secure  the  appointment  of  trader,  actually 
abrogating  and  annulling  Section  2129.  By  the  original  law,  (2129,)  no 
person  could  trade  except  by  a  license  to  be  granted  by  certain  specified 
parties.  By  the  last  law,  (2128,)  any  loyal  person  of  good  character  can 
trade  by  complying  with  certain  conditions. 

A  sad  commentary  on  the  moral  condition  of  our  country,  and  an  evi 
dence  of  the  utter  disregard  in  which  persons  in  authority  can,  with  impu 
nity,  hold  obnoxious  acts  of  Congress,  are  furnished  by  the  facts  that  these 
laws,  though  the  only  ones  regulating  the  appointment  of  trader  with  the 
Indians,  are  not  now,  and  have  never  been,  complied  with. 

The  law  of  1834  was  simply  modified  in  practice  ;  the  Commissioner  of 
Indian  affairs  arrogating  to  himself  the  sole  right  to  appoint  traders,  though 
the  law  gave  an  equal  right  to  other  parties.  The  law  of  1866  is  and  has 
been  utterly  ignored ;  the  Commissioners  of  Indian  affairs  still  exercising 
the  sole  right  of  appointment. 

Up  to  within  a  few  years  the  trade  of  Indians  of  the  United  States  in 
furs  and  skins,  ("peltries,")  was  estimated  at  not  less  than  twelve  millions 
of  dollars^early,  and  the  trade  in  other  products  of  various  kinds,  added 
not  a  little  to  the  amount.  Since  the  destruction  of  the  buffalo  the  former 
trade  has  greatly  fallen  off,  but  that  loss  is  partly  offset  by  a  corresponding 
gain  in  other  products. 

Under  the  illegal  and  injurious  squeezing  process  applied  to  the  Indians 
by  means  of  the  machinery  of  traders,  nearly  the  whole  of  this  vast  sum  finds 
its  way  into  the  pockets  of  the  Indian  King.  An  individual  is  given  sole 
right  to  trade  on  a  reservation,  or  with  a  certain  tribe  or  tribes.  He  is  the 
only  person  from  whom  the  Indians  can  buy  such  articles  as  they  need.  He 
is  the  only  person  to  whom  they  can  sell  such  articles  as  they  have  to  dis 
pose  of.  The  monopoly  is  complete,  and  under  the  illegal  ruling  of  the 
Indian  Department,  there  can  be  no  competition. 

The  barefaced  swindling  of  the  unfortunate  Indian  which  goes  on  under 
this  condition  of  affairs  can  scarcely  be  conceived.  Articles  of  civilized 
manufacture,  now  daily  becoming  more  and  more  necessary  to  the  Indian, 
are  sold  to  him  at  five  hundred  or  a  thousand  per  cent,  profit. 

Of  course,  he  need  not  buy,  but  he  wants  the  article  and  is  prevented  by 
the  regulations  of  the  Department  from  buying  from  any  one  else,  so  he 
must  either  be  swindled  or  go  without  it.  So  also  with  his  sales.  He 
brings  the  trader  a  lot  of  peltries,  and  is  offered  in  trade  five  or  ten  per 
cent,  of  their  value.  He  need  not  sell,  of  course.  It's  all  a  square  and 
open  business  transaction  with  the  trader.  There  is  no  force,  nor  even  per- 

*  Note. — It  might  be  curious  to  inquire  into  the  "influence  "  which  induced  the  com 
piler  of  these  statutes  to  give  a  law  of  1834,  a  number  immediately  after  a  law  of  I860. 


16 

suasion  about  it.  If  the  Indian  does  not  choose  to  accept  the  trader's  price, 
he  can  take  his  peltries  back  with  him  to  his  camp.  The  poor  creature  hem 
med  in  on  all  sides,  accepts  the  situation  exactly  as  he  would  an  unavoid 
able  death  at  the  stake,  and  whatever  he  may  think  on  the  subject,  makes 
no  protest,  but  accepts  any  price  offered,  or  gives  any  asked,  without  mur 
mur  or  question. 

The  destruction  of  the  buffalo  has  forced  the  Indians  to  adopt  a  great 
many  expedients  for  raising  money  to  buy  those  articles  of  civilized  manu 
facture  that  have  now  become  common  necessaries  amons:  them.  Of  these 

o 

expedients  the  most  remarkable  arid  unlooked  for  is  work.  Formerly  only 
women  worked.  A  man  degraded  himself  by  doing  anything  that  had  the 
appearance  of  labor.  Now,  it  is  not  unusual  to  see  gangs  of  men  and 
women  cutting  and  piling  cord  wood,  or  raking  and  loading  hay,  as  busy 
and  noisy  as  civilized  laborers.  Many  of  the  contracts  for  the  supply  of 
fuel  and  hay  to  military  posts  are  filled,  partly  at  least,  by  the  labor  of 
Indian  men  and  women. 

In  many  instances  the  contractors  are  Indian  traders,  for  their  personal 
acquaintance  with,  and  influence  among  the  Indians,  and  their  ability  to 
pay  for  work  done,  in  goods,  give  them  a  signal  advantage  over  other  bid 
ders.  In  other  cases,  the  contractor  makes  some  agreement  with  the  trader 
and  pays  his  Indian  laborers  with  orders  on  the  latter.  In  either  case  the 
result  is  the  same  swindling  of  the  Indian. 

o 

Two  years  ago  I  was  told  by  an  Indian  that  he  had  cut  twenty  cords  of 
wood  for  a  contractor,  for  which  he  was  to  receive  one  dollar  and  twenty- 
five  cents  per  cord.  The  wood  was  delivered,  and  he  received  an  order  on 
an  Indian  trader,  some  sixty  miles  away,  for  the  payment  of  the  amount. 
In  due  time  he  presented  the  order,  and  was  paid  one  pint  cup  of  brown 
sugar  for  each  cord  of  wood  cut. 

Paul's  Valley,  in  the  Chickasaw  nation,  is  one  of  the  garden  spots  of 
earth.  Thousands  of  bushels  of  corn  are  raised  by  the  Indians  in  and  near 
this  valley.  They  can  sell  only  to  the  Indian  trader.  I  have  been  in 
formed  that  the  average  price  paid  the  Indians  is  fifteen  cents  per  bushel  in 
goods — (three  to  five  cents  cash.)  This  corn  is  really  worth  on  the  spot, 
over  one  dollar  a  bushel  in  cash. 

From  every  article  sold  to,  and  everything  bought  of  an  Indian,  the 
trader  receives  his  hundreds  of  per  cent,  profit.  He  has  the  sole  control  of 
the  whole  financial  affairs  of  the  tribe,  and  under  the  unlawful  rulings  of 
the  Department,  not  a  transaction  can  be  effected  without  paying  him  his 
enormous  toll. 

In  this  crime  against  Indians,  the  Legislative  branch  of  the  Government 
is  not  implicated.  It  has  done  its  duty.  The  law  of  1866,  is  a  good  law. 
The  Indian  trade  is  by  it  thrown  open  to  ample  competition,  restricted  as 
is  only  right  and  proper.  The  wrong  seems  to  be  in  a  general  laxity  in  the 
Executive  branch  of  the  Government,  which  permits  laws  to  be  overridden 
or  ignored  by  persons  in  power,  whenever  the  injured  party  is  precluded 
by  the  nature  of  things  from  seeking  redress  in  the  courts. 


17 

If  any  of  the  crimes  enumerated  had  heen  perpetrated  against  white  citi 
zens,  the  country  would  have  rung  with  protests  against  them ;  redress 
would  have  been  sought  in  the  courts,  and  if  not  granted,  appeal  would 
have  been  had  to  the  freeman's  last  resort — arms.  But  the  Indians  have  no 
vote.  There  is,  therefore,  no  one  to  care  for  their  interests.  They  are 
scattered  and  helpless.  Laws  passed  in  their  behalf  are  ignored  at  the 
pleasure  of  some  man  "clothed  with  a  little  brief  authority,"  and  there 
seems  absolutely  no  help  for  it. 

Under  the  continued  swindling  above  delineated,  the  Indian  is  reduced 
to  the  very  lowest  depths  of  poverty,  and  in  the  nature  of  things,  if  there 
be  a  "lower  deep,"  he  must  find  it.  To  buy  at  highest,  and  sell  at  lowest 
prices,  will  soon  bring  any  people  to  financial  ruin.  The  Indian  does  not 
do  this  voluntarily.  It  is  forced  upon  him  by  the  unlawful  act  of  the  man 
who,  of  all  others,  ought  to  be  most  interested  in  his  welfare. 

The  Indian  should  have  the  right  of  competition.  He  should  have  such 
choice  of  traders  as  would  enable  him  to  buy  at  lowest,  and  sell  at  highest 
prices. 

The  present  iniquities  are  practiced  on  him  under  pretence  of  protecting 
him  from  whisky  sellers,  and  preventing  his  procuring  arms.  The  Indian 
territories  are  now  restricted,  and  surrounded  more  or  less  by  settlers.  The 
law  prohibits  the  introduction  of  spirituous  liquors  into  the  Indian  territo 
ries  or  reservations,  but  the  States  and  the  United  States  territories  license 
and  protect  their  inhabitants  in  the  sale  of  liquor.  The  whisky  seller  might 
run  some  little  risk  did  he  take  his  wares  into  the  limits  of  the  reservation, 
but  if  he  stops  his  wagon  just  outside,  the  Indian  can  step  over  and  get  all 
he  can  pay  for.  So,  also,  in  the  sale  of  arms.  Under  the  present  system, 
the  bad  Indian  gets  all  the  arms  and  liquor  he  wants,  while  the  well-dis 
posed  Indian  is  swindled  out  of  his  substance. 


Among  civilized  nations,  the  welfare  of  prisoners  has  come  to  be  a  duty 
of  the  highest  consideration.  Imprisonment  is  not  to  be  a  punishment, 
but  a  restraint,  and  societies  or  nations  imprison  people  merely  for  their 
own  protection,  and  are  bound,  injustice  and  honor,  to  treat  them  kindly, 
and  to  make  them  as  comfortable  as  is  consistent  with  the  security  of  their 
persons.  No  excuse,  however  plausible,  can  quell  the  indignation  of  every 
right  feeling  man  on  reading  the  horrors  of  the  prison  pen  at  Anderson- 
ville,  and  the  keepers  of  jails  and  houses  of  correction  find  to  their  cost, 
that  ill-treatment  of  prisoners,  is  the  one  crime  which  society  will  not 
condone. 

It  is,  therefore,  with  feelings  of  mingled  sorrow  and  humiliation  that  I 
arraign  the  Government  of  the  United  States  before  the  bar  of  public 
opinion,  as  treating  its  Indian  prisoners  exactly  as  the  pastor  in  charge  of 
the  "Shepherd's  Fold,"  in  New  York  city,  treated  the  innocent  orphans 
that  were  so  unfortunate  as  to  fall  into  his  hands.  It  imprisons  them,  it 

3 


18 

star ves_ them,  and  when  their  human  or  animal  nature,  revolting  against 
the  continued  outrages,  seeks  such  redress  as  their  poor  means  and  barbar 
ous  instincts  prompt,  it  punishes  them. 

The  Indian  is  "cabin'd,  cribb'd,  confined" — not,  indeed,  within  stone 
walls,  but  he  finds,  in  his  case  at  least,  that  imaginary  lines  are  just  as  effect 
ive  means  of  confinement  as  the  strongest  bolts  and  bars.  Their  hunting 
grounds  have  been  wrested  from  the  Indians,  and  they  have  been  "  rounded 
up  "  like  cattle  on  restricted  areas.  Against  their  will,  they  have  been 
forced  on  reservations;  against  their  will,  they  are  forced  to  stay  there. 
They  are  prisoners  in  every  sense  of  the  word. 

The  nation  having  performed  its  duty  to  itself,  by  arresting  and  confining 
the  prisoner,  now,  as  in  honor  bound,  proceeds  to  take  the  best  possible  care 
of  him. 

We  shall  see. 

The  plains  were  alive  with  buffalo — sufficient  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
Indians  for  all  time.  The  nation  looked  on  while  white  men  slaughtered 
the  last  buffalo  for  his  hide,  although  this  slaughter  was  contrary  to  law  and 
in  contravention  of  treaties  made  with  the  Indians. 

The  restricted  areas  in  which  the  Indians  are  confined,  are  not  too  nar 
row  to  contain  game,  almost,  if  not  quite,  sufficient  for  their  wants.  The 
Indians  cannot  go  outside  to  kill  game,  but  the  nation  looks  quietly  on  and 
sees  the  whole  reservations  marked  with  tracks  of  white  hunting  parties, 
which,  in  spite  of  laws  and  treaties  to  the  contrary,  kill  and  carry  off  their 
means  of  subsistence  from  under  the  very  noses  of  the  nation's  prisoners. 

Of  course,  then,  the  nation  having  made  prisoners  of  the  Indians,  and 
having  permitted  them  to  be  deprived  of  the  means  of  subsisting  them 
selves,  has  charged  itself  with  the  special  care  of,  and  provision  for,  their 
wants. 

Not  so.  In  violation  of  every  dictate  of  justice  and  humanity — in  emu 
lation  on  a  grand  scale  of  the  crime  perpetrated  at  Andersonville, — the  na 
tion  leaves  its  helpless  prisoners  to  starve,  and  shoots  without  mercy  the 
reckless  few,  who,  goaded  to  desperation  by  their  sufferings,  dare  to  cross 
the'"  dead  line  "  of, the  reservation. 

In  this  horrid  crime,  every  voter  of  the  country  is  either  actively  or  pas 
sively  implicated,  for  it  has  its  root  and  source  in  the  Legislative  branch  of 
the  Government. 

The  amount  appropriated  by  Congress  for  the  support  of  the  Indians  for 
the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1880,  was  $5,037,000.  The  number  of  In 
dians,  252,897.  Dividing  among  them  every  penny  appropriated,  this 
would  give  to  each  Indian,  man,  woman,  and  child,  less  than  nineteen 
dollars  for  his  support  for  one  entire  year.  This,  however,  although  the 
obvious,  is  not  a  fair  method  of  arriving  at  the  exact  amount  of  support 
given  to  the  destitute  Indians  by  a  beneficent  Government.  Many  of  the 
Indians  are  more  or  less  self-supporting.  Some,  like  the  Choctaws,  Chero- 
kees,  Chickasaws,  Creeks,  Seminoles,  &c.,  have  so  far  advanced  in  civilixa- 


19 

tion,  and  have  so  much  invested  in  United  States  bonds,  as  to  require  no 
direct  support  from  the  Government.  Others,  as  the  Chippewas,  "Winne- 
bagos,  Omahas,  &c.,  make  a  full  support  for  themselves  by  their  labor.  Al 
most  all,  indeed,  make  by  labor,  or  by  hunting  and  fishing,  at  least  a  per 
centage  of  their  own  support ;  the  only  exceptions  being  the  Brule  Sioux, 
the  Poncas,  and  Nez  Perces. 

Descending  therefore  from  the  "general  average  "  which  makes  so  poor 
a  showing  for  the  Indians,  I  will  take  up  for  consideration,  a  special  case 
averaging  fairly  with  the  cases  of  all  other  wild  Indians,  and  from  which 
a  very  correct  judgment  can  be  formed  as  to  the  insufficiency  of  the  appro 
priations. 

The  Cheyenne  and  Arrapahoe  tribes,  numbering  5,496  individuals,  are 
concentrated  about  an  agency  situated  on  the  North  Fork  of  the  Canadian 
River,  in  the  Indian  Territory,  opposite,  and  near  the  military  post  of  Port 
Reno.  The  Kiowa,  Comanche,  Apache,  and  "Wichita  tribes,  numbering 
4,117  souls,  have  two  agencies,  the  principal  one  near  Fort  Sill,  the  branch 
on  the  Washita  River.  These  tribes  are  yet"  wild  Indians,"  having  but 
just  been  initiated  in  the  rudiments  of  any  self-support  not  derived  from  the 
chase. 

The  total  population  is  9,613. 

The  total  sum  appropriated  by  Congress  for  their  subsistence  is  $290,000. 
This  gives  to  each  Indian  $30  per  year,  or  about  eight  cents  per  day.  This 
is  a  sum  totally  inadequate  to  the  appeasement  of  a  capacious  and  ever 
hungry  stomach,  even  did  the  Indian  get  the  whole  in  provisions.  But  he 
really  gets  in  food  only  a  small  part  of  even  this  small  sum. 

We  will  suppose  this  money  divided  between  the  agencies  in  proportion 
to  population.  The  Cheyenne  and  Arrapahoe  agency  should  receive 
$165,800.  I  have  seen  the  estimates  of  the  agent  for  the  year  1880.  Cut 
ting  as  closely  as  possible,  the  prime  cost  of  the  ration  absolutely  necessary 
to  support  the  lives  of  the  Indians  in  his  charge,  was  $254,000,  or  over 
$88,000  more  than  the  proportional  amount  due.  But,  for  reasons  only 
known  to  the  "  authorities,"  he  failed  to  get  anything  near  his  proper  pro 
portion.  Some  of  his  items  of  food  were  arbitrarily  cut  down  two-thirds, 
some  one-half,  some  one-third,  all  more  or  less,  so  that  he  really  had  bare 
support  for  his  Indians  for  only  one-half  of  the  year.  Besides  this,  other 
Indians  were  crowded  in  on  him  for  whom  no  estimate  had  been  made,  but 
to  whom  he  was  expected  to  issue  rations  sufficient  to  keep  them  quiet.  Thus, 
700  or  800  Northern  Cheyennes,  already  dissatisfied  and  disposed  to  be 
troublesome,  were  foisted  upon  him,  to  their  own  discomfort,  and  to  the  in 
jury  and  suffering  of  those  Indians  for  whom  the  appropriation  was  made. 

Even  supposing  the  agent  to  be  "  honest  as  the  sun,"  and  that  the  affairs 
of  the  agency  are  administered  with  perfect  ability  and  economy,  it  was  im 
possible  for  each  individual  Indian  to  receive  more  than  two  or  three  cents 
a  day  to  satisfy  his  famished  stomach. 
All  this  is  criminal.     It  is  time  that  all  persons  responsible  for  the  care 


20 

and  condition  of  the  Indians  should  recognize  the  fact  that  they  are  pris 
oners  of  war,  and  that  justice  and  humanity  alike  require  that  they  be 
supported  until  such  time  as  they  can  learn  to  support  themselves  in  their 
new  mode  of  life. 

Let  us  be  men,  and  quit  the  base  and  senseless  cry  of  the  demagogue, 
"  economy."  As  we  demand  our  own  rights,  so  let  us  be  just  enough  to 
regard  the  rights  of  others. 

"  The  killing  of  one  man  makes  a  murderer,  the  killing  of  thousands 
makes  a  hero." 

We  denounce  the  Confederate  action  at  Andersonville  as  base  cruelty. 
We  do  the  self-same  thing  on  a  grand  scale,  and  call  it  political  wisdom  ! 

Count  the  Indians  pauperized  by  the  action,  (and  inaction,)  of  the  Gov 
ernment.  Make  a  fair  and  liberal  estimate  of  the  sums  necessary  for  their 
support.  Let  agents  and  commissioners  dare  to  put  on  record  what  that 
necessity  is,  and  to  place  the  whole  matter  in  its  true  light  before  the  people 
of  the  country.  The  money  will  be  forthcoming.  "  The  people  "  are 
honest,  honorable,  humane  ;  and  law-makers  are  quick  to  catch  the  "  signs 
of  the  times." 

I  wish  that  every  citizen  of  the  United  States  could  see,  as  I  have  seen 
the  actual  condition  of  these  unfortunate  people.  I  would  then  have  no 
need  to  ela-borate  statement  or  argument. 

You  send  fabulous  sums  to  the  suffering  South,  to  Ireland,  to  China,  to 
the  remote  confines  of  earth  in  aid  of  the  suffering  and  to  feed  the  starving. 
At  your  very  doors  you  have  suffering  and  starvation  beyond  anything 
you  have  tried  to  ameliorate.  A  race  appeals  not  only  to  your  humanity, 
but  to  your  justice — a  barbarous,  cruel,  ignorant,  shiftless  race — but  a  race 
of  earnest  natural  men,  whose  very  weaknesses  appeal  to  us  to  save  them 
from  themselves,  and  from  the  harpies  who  feed  upon  them. 


Until  within  a  very  few  years,  the  agents  through  whom  the  Govern 
ment  dealt  with  the  Indians,  were  purely  political  appointments.  A  man 
was  selected,  not  for  character  or  capacity,  or  knowledge  of  Indians,  but 
simply  as  a  reward  for  the  political  services  of  himself  or  his  backers,  to 
perform  a  duty  requiring  courage,  skill,  tact,  and  knowledge  of  human  na 
ture.  His  tenure  of  office  was  the  pleasure  of  the  appointing  power,  and 
his  salary  almost  nominal,  a  pittance  of  $1,200  or  $1,500  a  year.  He  was 
entrusted  with  more  or  less  money  and  property  for  Indian  expenditures, 
much  of  which  he  might  appropriate  to  himself  if  so  disposed ;  and  his  of 
fice  and  contact  with  the  Indians  gave  him  the  control  of  their  trade. 

On  so  miserable  a  salary,  a  strictly  honest  man  would  return  from  his 
years  of  danger,  privation,  and  banishment,  if  not  poorer,  at  least,  no 
richer,  than  when  he  accepted  the  agency.  The  dishonest  man  in  the  same 
position,  and  under  the  same  circumstances,  might  return  with  one  or  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  Could  there  be  conceived  a  more  efficient  and 
sure  method  of  converting  an  honest  man  into  a  thief  ? 


21 

Within  the  last  few  years  an  effort  has  been  made  to  benefit  the  Indian 
service  by  leaving  the  selection  of  agents  to  the  Christian  bodies  of  the 
country.  This  failed  necessarily,  since  the  root  of  the  evil,  low  salaries  and 
uncertain  tenure  of  office,  remained  untouched.  Experience  of  life  does 
not  teach  that  men  are  less  greedy  of  money  because  they  are  professing 
Christians.  Temptation  comes  to  all  alike,  and  the  profession  of  Christianity 
will  make  no  man  honest.  The  man  who  would  steal  as  a  layman,  will 
steal  as  a  Christian.  Human  nature  is  weak  ;  honest,  perfect  administra 
tion,  is  not  to  be  expected  of  men  who  risk  their  lives  on  low  salaries  and 
uncertain  tenure  of  office. 

The  selection  of  agents  by  Christian  Churches,  is  really  one  of  the  most 
absurd  things  ever  perpetrated  in  this  enlightened  age.* 

The  Indian  agent  is  actually  the  Governor  of  one  or  more  tribes  of  wild 
men.  He  is  the  representative  of  the  power  and  will  of  the  United  States 
Government.  His  duties  are  the  control  of  the  whole  political  and  finan 
cial  affairs  of  the  tribes  as  connected  with  the  Government.  These  tribes 
are  a  warlike  race,  whose  pastime  is  pillage  and  bloodshed  ;  whose  idea  of 
right  is  simply  might ;  whose  respect  for,  and  appreciation  of  their  ruler, 
is  exactly  in  proportion  to  his  character  as  a  soldier,  and  the  power  of  will 
which  enables  him  to  control  masses  of  men.  To  place  a  poor  old  manlike 
Mr.  Meeker,  however  faithful,  honest,  and  earnest  he  may  be,  in  charge  of 
a  set  of  wild  brigands  like  the  Utes,  is  simply  to  invite  massacre. 

There  are  very  few  voters  in  this  country,  even  Christians,  who  would  be 
willing  to  submit  to  a  law  requiring  that  every  Governor  of  a  State,  or  ter 
ritory,  must  be  a  professing  Christian  of  some  one  of  the  numerous  denom 
inations.  Ignoring  religious  qualifications,  they  require  for  their  own 
Governor,  a  man  of  standing  and  supposed  administrative  ability.  Yet  the 
government  of  a  State,  composed  of  intelligent  and  law-abiding  citizens, 
is  a  very  easy  matter  compared  to  the  government  of  a  tribe  of  savages. 
While  requiring  high  character  and  marked  capacity,  for  the  easy  office,  we 
are  inconsistent  enough  to  deal  out  the  difficult  and  dangerous  offices  to 
those  whose  only  merit  consists  in  supposed  earnestness  of  Christian  feeling 
and  sentiment.  I  doubt  if  there  be  among  civilized  nations,  any  but  our 
own,  which  could  so  completely  have  submerged  itself  in  the  slough  of  a 
ridiculous  and  criminal  absurdity. 

To  us,  who  live  among  the  Indians,  and  know  their  character  and  the 
feelings  that  actuate  them,  the  only  wonder  is,  that  the  agents  and  agencies 
have  not  long  ago  been  swept  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

********* 

Ignoring  the  repeated  recommendations  of  the  Interior  Department, 
Congress  has  persistently  failed  to  enact  a  code  of  laws  for  the  government 


*It  is  suggested  that  such  selection  is  in  violation  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  in  uniting  affairs  of  church  and  State,  and  in  discriminating 
(as  ineligible)  against  every  man  who  is  not  a  member  of  a  Christian  Church. 


22 

of  the  Indians.  The  "  wild  "  Indians  have  not  yet  climbed  sufficiently  far 
up  the  ladder  of  human  progress  to  have  discovered  for  themselves  the 
need  of  laws,  or  the  obligations  of  morality.  In  its  hundred  years  of  "  con 
trol  and  management,"  the  Government  of  the  United  States  has  never 
awakened  to  the  facts  that  these  wild  and  savage  natures  might  be  im 
proved  by  the  discipline  of  law,  and  that  no  steps  in  civilization  are  possi 
ble  until  the  savage  has  some  fixed  principles  by  which  to  guide  his 
actions. 

It  is  common  to  talk  of  the  crimes  of  the  Indians'.  However  horrible 
the  atrocities  committed  by  them,  and  recorded  on  almost  every  page  of  our 
history  since  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims — there  are  no  crimes. 

A  crime  is  a  wilful  violation  of  law  or  moral  obligation.  The  Indian 
knows  no  law,  either  human  or  divine,  nor  does  he  understand  any  moral 
obligation.  His  deeds  of  rapine  and  cruelty  are  simply  hissmode  of  making 
war  ;  a  part  of  his  savage  condition.  The  grandest  of  exploits,  the  noblest 
of  virtues,  to  him,  are  comprehended  in  the  English  words — theft,  pillage, 
arson,  rapine,  murder.  He  is  a  savage  noxious  animal,  and  his  actions  are 
those  of  a  ferocious  beast  of  prey,  unsoftened  by  any  touch  of  pity  or 
mercy.  For  them  he  is  to  be  blamed,  exactly  as  the  tiger  and  the  wolf  are 
blamed. 

The  moral  responsibility  for  his  atrocities  rests  on  other  shoulders,  and 
we  should  blush  with  shame,  when  we  reflect  that  the  Indian  is  still  an  un 
tamed  savage,  without  an  idea  of  moral  right  and  wrong,  though  in  con 
tact  with  our  boasted  civilization  for  two  hundred  and  sixty  years,  and, 
though  "  controlled  and  managed  "  by  our  Government,  and  taught  by 
missionaries  from  our  Christian  Churches,  for  nearly  one  hundred  years. 

An  agent  is  killed,  his  family  brutally  maltreated  ;  citizens  are  murdered, 
their  wives  and  children  carried  into  the  most  revolting  captivity  ;  murder, 
arson,  rapine,  stalk  rampant.  The  benificent  Government  suavely  extends 
the  aegis  of  immunity  over  the  red  perpetrators.  They  cannot  be  punished 
by  law,  for  they  have  violated  no  law,  and  Congress  sees  to  it  that  there 
shall  be  no  law  to  violate. 

Can  any  right  thinking  man  blame  Indians  for  their  non-advancement 
in  civilization  under  this  condition  of  affairs  ?  Is  any  community  safe,  or 
civilized,  in  which  atrocious  deeds  go  unpunished? 

Although  peculiarly  indisposed  to  quarrel  and  conflict  among  themselves, 
there  are  occasional  and  exceptional  instances  of  what  in  white  men  would 
be  crime.  No  tribe  having  any  law  or  idea  of  law,  no  punishment  can  be 
inflicted  by  law.  A  brother  may  retaliate  by  murder  the  murder  of  his 
brother,  but  this  is  purely  a  personal  affair,  and,  as  a  rule,  serious  offences 
go  unpunished. 

Leaving  out  of  consideration  the  so-called  half  civilized  tribes  of  the  In 
dian  Territory,  there  are  yet  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  near 
two  hundred  thousand  savages,  "  wards  of  the  nation,"  to  whom,  and  for 
whom,  the  Government  in  its  wisdom  thinks  no  law  is  necessary.  Indians 


23 

may  murder  Indians  ;  Indians  may  ravage  the  settlements,  committing  all 
the  acts  known  in  our  statutes  as  capital  crimes,  and  there  is  no  court  of 
justice,  either  civil  or  military,  which  can  legally  punish  them.  Such 
atrocities  have  been  punished  ;  Modoc  Jack  and  his  assistants  in  the  murder 
of  General  Canby  and  the  Commissioners  ;  the  ring  leaders  of  the  Sioux 
Massacre  in  Iowa,  and  many  others  have  expiated  their  deeds  on  the  gal 
lows,  but  the  punishment  was  not  by  virtue  of  any  law  of  the  land.  They 
suffered  under  the  operation  of  the  old  old  law — the  foundation  of  all  law — 
the  "  lex  talionis." 

Forty  thousand  full  grown,  able-bodied  thieves,  ravishers,  murderers,  to 
whom  the  Government  accords  perfect  immunity  and  grants  complete  am 
nesty  ! 

The  United  States,  in  failing  to  establish  a  code  of  laws,  has  fallen  in  ex 
actly  with  the  aboriginal  idea.  Indians  are  encouraged  to  think  that  we 
believe  as  they  do,  and  that  the  atrocities  committed  by  them  are  not 
wrong. 

One  of  the  first  and  most  necessary  steps  towards  the  civilization  of  any 
savage  people,  is  to  establish  and  enforce  a  code  of  laws. 


The  last  five  years — more  than  any  twenty  preceding  them — have  con 
vinced  the  wild  Indians  of  the  utter  futility  of  their  war  against  the  United 
States  Government.  One  and  all,  they  are  thoroughly  whipped,  and  their 
contests  in  the  future  will  be  the  acts  of  predatory  parties,  (for  which  the 
Indians  at  large  are  no  more  responsible  than  is  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  for  the  acts  of  highwaymen  in  the  Black  Hills,  or  train-rob 
bers  in  Missouri,)  or  a  deliberate  determination  of  the  bands  or  tribes  to 
die  fighting,  rather  than  by  the  slow  torture  of  starvation  to  which  the 
Government  condemns  them. 

The  buffalo  are  gone ;  so,  also,  nearly  all  the  other  large  game  on  which 
the  Indians  depended  for  food.  They  are  confined  to  comparatively  re 
stricted  reservations,  and  completely  surrounded  b}'  whites.  They  are 
more  perfectly  aware  of  the  stringency  of  their  situation  than  any  white 
man  can  possibly  be,  for  they  daily  feel  its  pressure. 

With  no  chance  of  success  in  war,  with  no  possibility  of  providing  food 
for  themselves,  with  no  adequate  assistance  from  Government,  they  thor 
oughly  comprehend  that  their  only  hope  for  the  future  is  in  work,  or,  as 
they  express  it,  "  in  the  white  man's  road." 

They  do  not  like  it  of  course,  it  would  be  unnatural  if  the}'  did,  they  ac 
cept  it  as  the  dire  alternative  against  starvation.  Does  any  man  labor  for 
the  sake  of  labor?  A  man  who  spaded  up  a  field  simply  to  give  himself 
labor,  would  be  considered  a  fit  subject  for  the  lunatic  asylum.  Labor  is 
the  curse  on  Adam,  and  however  neces&ary,  and  ennobling,  is  not  an  end, 
but  a  means.  We  labor  for  money,  for  ambition,  for  health,  for  anything 
except  for  labor  itself. 


24 

Basing  arguments  on  the  Indian's  contempt  for  work,  many  men  in  and 
out  of  Congress,  talk  eloquent  nonsense  of  the  impossibility  of  ever  bring 
ing  him  to  agricultural  pursuits.  The  average  Indian  has  no  more  hatred 
of  labor,  as  such,  than  the  average  white  man.  Neither  will  labor  unless 
an  object  is  to  be  obtained  ;  both  will  labor  rather  than  starve.  Heretofore 
the  Indian  could  comfortably  support  himself  in  his  usual  and  preferred 
life,  without  labor,  and  there  being  no  other  incentive,  he  would,  in  my 
opinion,  have  only  proved  himself  an  idiot  had  he  worked  without  an 
object. 

Within  the  last  four  or  five  years,  the  agent  for  the  Cheyennes  and  Ar- 
rapahoes,  (as  wild  and  savage  as  any  Indians  on  the  plains,)  has  encouraged 
the  small  bands  and  heads  of  families  to  go  off  from  the  agency,  select  lo 
cations,  and  go  to  farming.  The  eagerness  with  which  they  seized  upon 
the  idea,  and  the  amount  of  work  done  each  year,  are  ample  evidence,  not 
only\of  their  earnest  desire  to  travel  "  the  white  man's  road,"  but  of  their 
capacity  to  sustain  themselves,  after  some  more  time  and  instruction. 

My  experience  does  not  prove  that  it  is  necessary  for  the  Indian  to  go 
through  the  pastoral,  to  arrive  at  the  agricultural  stage  of  progress.  This 
may  depend  somewhat  on  the  capabilities  of  the  country;  but  I  am  satis 
fied  that  several  of  the  wild  tribes  are  at  this  moment,  ready  and  willing  to 
go  to  farming,  and  with  good  hope  of  success. 

This  seemingly  easy  process  is,  however,  attended  with  many  serious 
practical  difficulties,  which  are  well  exemplified  in  the  experiment  of  the 
agent  before  alluded  to.  The  locations  made  by  the  Indians,  were  scattered 
far  and  wide,  some  as  many  as  sixty  miles  from  the  agency.  On  account 
of  some  regulation  of  the  Indian  Bureau,  or  reason  of  his  own,  the  agent 
would  issue  rations  only  for  a  week  or  ten  days  at  a  time.  The  Indians 
were,  therefore,  forced,  every  few  days,  to  leave  their  plows  and  go  to  the 
agency  for  food  for  themselves  and  families.  A  wagon  is  broken  or  a 
plough  needs  sharpening,  the  Indian  must  take  it,  as  best  he  can,  forty, 
fifty,  sixty  miles,  to  the  agency  for  repairs. 

But  the  most  serious  and  disheartening  difficulty  and  drawback  of  Indian 
farming,  is,  that  they  are  merely  "tenants  by  courtesy."  They  do  not  own 
and  can  get  no  title  to  their  locations ;  consequently,  the  labor  on  each  is 
simply  that  necessary  for  one  year's  crop.  Every  Indian  with  whom  I  have 
conversed  on  the  subject,  makes  this  the  strong  ground  of  his  complaint. 
The  other  annoyances  he  could  stand  if  he  only  had  a  home  of  his  own, 
but  he  can  take  no  interest  in,  and  has  no  heart  to  fix  up,  a  farm  to  which 
he  has  no  legal  claim,  and  which  the  agent  may  make  him  leave  at  any 
time. 

The  very  inception  of  such  feeling  is  indication  of  a  long  stride  in  ad 
vance  of  utter  savage  life.  Its  development,  and  through  it,  the  assured 
future  of  the  Indian  should  be  the  first  object  of  the  Government.  Let  the 
yearnings  of  this  newly  awakened  desire  be  satisfied.  Give  the  Indian  land 
in  severality,  and  means  and  encouragement  to  make  a  fixed  home  for 
himself. 


25 


I  do  not  here  propose  to  discuss  the  question  of  suffrage,  except  so  far  as 
to  suggest  that  the  cry  for  "  universal  suffrage  "  in  this  country,  is  in  fact 
simply  the  cry  of  the  demagogue.  If  "  universal  suffrage  "  means  anything, 
it  means  that  the  right  of  suffrage  shall  be  exercised  by  every  free  sane 
citizen  of  the  United  States.  The  "  wild  "  Irishman,  the  Italian  organ- 
grinder,  the  plantation  Negro,  neither  of  whom  know  a  letter  of  the  al 
phabet,  or  have  a  scintillation  of  an  idea  about  our  form  of  G-overnment, 
all  have  votes,  though  there  are  other  classes  of  our  citizens,  far  more  in 
telligent,  which  are  deprived  of  that  right.  This  is  the  great,  free  and  en 
lightened  American  Republic — absorbing,  digesting,  assimilating  all  na 
tions,  and  peoples,  except  Mongolians,  Indians,  and  Women. 

Even  in  these  classes  there  are  exceptions,  for,  though  the  Siamese,  (as  I 
personally  know,  in  the  case  of  the  celebrated  twins,)  may  be  naturalized 
and  vote,  the  Chinese,  though  of  the  same  general  race,  may  not. 

Is  there  any  real  statesmanlike  reason  for  making  such  arbitrary  distinc 
tions  ? 

If  universal  suffrage  is  so  excellent  a  thing  as  to  be  practically,  though 
partially  adopted  by  both  the  great  political  parties,  why  not  accept  it  en 
tirely,  and  thus  make  a  fair  experiment  of  its  benefits? 

Within/  the  last  few  years,  great  numbers  of  semi-civilized  people  from 
Russia,  have  immigrated  to  Kansas,  and  to  other  points  in  the  West.  They 
settle  in  colonies,  retain  their  language,  manners,  and  customs.  They  take 
out  naturalization  papers,  and  investing  themselves  with  the  "  rights,  privi 
leges,  and  immunities,"  of  American  citizens,  become  at  once  an  object  of 
interest  to  the  great  political  parties  of  the  country,  each  of  which  takes 
good  care  that  they  are  not  imposed  upon  by  the  other. 

Whether  or  not,  "  universal  suffrage  "  is  good  for  the  "  body  politic,"  is 
a  question  which  the  future  must  determine,  but  that  the  ballot  is  a  benefit 
to  the  individual  is  a  matter  of  daily  experience.  Admitting  that  the  In 
dian  is  no  more  worthy  of  the  ballot  than  the  "  wild  Irishman,"  the  Organ- 
grinder,  the  Negro,  or  the  Mennonite,  he  is,  nevertheless,  equally  worthy  of, 
and  entitled  to  the  protection  it  gives. 

'*  *  #  *  *  *  * 

Boarding  the  train  on  the  M.  K.  and  T.  Railroad  at  Emporia,  Kansas, 
and  taking  a  comfortable  seat  on  the  shady  side  of  a  luxurious  ll  Pullman," 
we  start  south  on  a  journey  through  an  agricultural  paradise.  On  every 
side,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  broad  fields  of  rustling  corn  and  waving 
grain,  surround  cosy  farm-houses.  Bustling  towns  and  thriving  villages 
alternate  the  scene,  and  all  give  assurance  of  active,  useful,  civilized  life. 

We  are  lost  in  the  contemplation  of  such  an  abundance  of  prosperity, 
when,  suddenly,  as  if  by  magic,  the  fields  disappear,  the  comfortable  farm 
houses  vanish,  and  the  well  built  towns  are  replaced  by  a  few  wretched 
hovels  grouped  about  the  occasional  railroad  depot.  The  general  features 
4 


26 

v 

of  the  country  are  the  same,  the  soil  is  the  same,  it  is  the  same  beautiful 
"  flowery  land,"  but  we  have  in  an  instant  been  transported  from  the  "busy 
haunts  of  men,"  to  a  scarcely  inhabited  solitude.  The  line  has  been  crossed ; 
we  are  in  the  Indian  Territory. 

In  setting  aside  sixty-four  thousand  square  miles,  or  forty-one  millions 
of  acres  of  excellent  land  for  the  exclusive  occupancy  of  a  few  thousand 
Indians,  the  Government  has  made  just  such  an  attempt  as  if  the  original 
settlers  had  devoted  one-half  of  New  York  Island  to  use  as  a  Potter's 
Field;  an  attempt  absurd  in  conception,  impossible  of  fruition.  There  is 
no  power  in  the  Government  that  can  retain  these  lands  to  the  Indian,  for 
it  is  right  and  justice,  neither  to  the  white  man,  nor  to  the  Indian,  that  they 
should  be  so  retained. 

If  the  "  laissez  faire  "  policy  which  the  Government  has  so  long  and  per 
sistently  pursued  is  still  continued,  these  lands  will  be  filched  from  the 
Indian  without  adequate  compensation,  and  in  a  way  still  further  to  pau 
perize  him.  If  the  people  of  the  country  will  throw  off  their  prejudices  for 
or  against  the  Indian,  and  look  the  matter  squarely  in  the  face,  I  believe 
that  such  action  can  be  forced  on  the  Government  as  will  redound  to  the 
best  advantage  of  both  white  and  red  races. 

All  the  whites,  and  a  few  dominant  Indians  of  this  fair  territory,  are  in 
favor  of  having  things  remain  as  at  present,  because  they  make  their  living 
out  of  it,  and  a  good  living  too.  The  mass  of  the  Indian  populations  are 
dissatisfied,  and  utterly  disheartened,  and  with  most  sufficient  cause.  Sisy 
phus  had  no  more  hopeless  task  than  they.  To  work  forever,  without  ever 
owning  the  result  of  their  labors  !  ! 

Section  2,  Article  1,  of  the  constitution  of  the  Cherokee  Nation,  reads  as 
follows  : 

"  The  lands  of  the  Cherokee  Nation  shall  remain  common  property  :  but 
the  improvements  made  thereon,  and  in  possession  of  the  citizens  of  the 
nation,  are  the  exclusive  and  indefeasible  property  of  the  citizens  respec 
tively  who  made,  or  may  rightfully  be  in  possession  of  them  ;  provided,  that 
the  citizens  of  the  nation,  possessing  exclusive  and  indefeasible  right  to 
their  improvements  as  expressed  in  this  article,  shall  possess  no  right  or 
power  to  dispose  of  their  improvements  in  any  manner  whatever  to  the 
United  States,  or  to  individual  citizens  thereof." 

This  communism,  this  absolute  barrier  to  prosperity,  is  regarded  as  so 
important  that  it  finds  expression  in  the  very  first  article  of  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  most  advanced  of  the  Indian  tribes.  It  is  an  attempt  on  the 
part  of  chiefs  and  leading  men  to  preserve  tribal  relations,  and  secure  their 
own  power. 

The  aggressive  civilized  conflict  between  capital  and  labor,  becomes,  in 
the  Indian  Territory,  a  mild,  but  decided  supremacy  on  the  one  side,  and  an 
apathetic  acquiescence  on  the  other.  It  is  the  mildest  of  all  forms  of  serf 
dom,  the  landlords,  to  maintain  their  supremacy,  being  compelled  to  be  very 


27 

unexacting.  Common  report  makes  them  an  exceedingly  considerate  patri 
archal  class,  aiding  their  special  creatures  whenever  necessary.  The  objec 
tion  to  the  system  is  simply  that  it  retards  the  growth  of  the  people  in 
civilization  and  capacity  for  self-support.  It  is  the  old  relation  of  chief 
and  commons  with  the  despotic  features  softened  away.  There  can  be  no 
real  healthy  advancement  until  all  these  old  tribal  relations  and  dependen 
cies,  are  entirely  abolished. 

The  Cherokees  present  the  curious  anomaly  of  an  independent  nation, 
existing  within  the  territory  of  another  nation.  Its  citizens  owe  no  allegi 
ance  to  the  United  States,  and  are  subject  to  no  control  by  them  except 
through  treaty  stipulations. 

Other  nations  as  the  Choctaws,  Chickasaws,  &c.,  present  the  same 
anomaly,  and  the  tendency  seems  to  be  to  erect  as  many  as  possible  of 
these  little  independent  nationalities,  "wheels  within  wheels,"  in  the 
limits  of  our  wide  territories.  A  few  shrewd  men  rule  the  ignorant 
masses,  hold  all  the  positions  of  honor  and  profit,  and  fight  most  vigorously 
every  attempt  to  interfere  with  their  monopoly  of  government. 

There  are  other  reasons  why  the  Indian  Territory  must  and  will  be, 
opened  to  settlement. 

Under  the  Indian  laws,  any  citizen  of  the  nations  may  hire  a  citizen  of 
the  United  States  as  laborer  or  mechanic,  on  paying  into  the  treasury  the 
sum  of  fifty  cents  per  month  for  each  person  hired.  An  American  wants 
to  settle  in  the  Indian  territory.  He  goes  to  a  citizen  of  the  nation,  living 
near  the  lands  on  which  he  proposes  to  settle,  and  for  a  small  sum,  procures 
that  citizen  to  cause  him  to  be  registered  as  his  employee.  He  then  brings 
in  his  family,  builds  his  house,  fences  and  ploughs  his  fields,  and  creates  a 
home  in  which  he  is  unmolested  by  sheriif  or  tax-collector,  so  long  as  he 
pays  into  the  Indian  treasury  six  dollars  a  year.  It  is  safe  to  estimate  that 
there  are  more  than  ten  thousand  such  settlers  in  the  Indian  Territory  at  this 
very  moment. 

It  will  not  be  many  years  before  the  States  adjoining  the  Indian  Terri 
tory  will  take  some  very  positive  steps  to  have  it  opened.  At  present  it  is 
the  "  House  of  Refuge  "  for  the  most  desperate  outlaws'  and  hardened 
thieves  of  the  frontier.  These  live  by  preying  alike  upon  the  Indians  and 
the  inhabitants  of  the  adjacent  States,  making  sudden  dashes,  gathering  in 
the  spoil,  and  retreating  to  the  security  of  the  wild  solitudes  of  this  vast 
territory. 

The  friends  of  the  Indian  do  him  incalculable  injury  by  demanding  too 
much.  Standing  on  their  prejudices  and  the  "  faith  of  treaties,"  they  pro 
pose  to  do  for  the  Indians  what  they  would  not  think  of  doing  if  those  In 
dians  were  white  men.  They  insist  that  an  Indian  population  which  con 
solidated  would  make  a  city  less  populous  than  Cincinnati,  shall  occupy 
and  hold  forever,  lands  sufficient  to  support  all  the  present  population  (white 
and  Indian,)  of  the  whole  United  States. 

It  cannot  be  done,  and  the  sooner  the  fact  is  recognized  the  better  it  will 
be  for  the  Indian  race. 


28 


As  an  officer  of -the  army,  I  am  not  an  advocate  for  the  transfer  of  the 
Indians  to  the  War  Department,  as  it  would  add  immensely  to  our  duties, 
and  saddle  us  with  onerous  and  disagreeable  responsibilities.  As  a  citizen 
of  the  United  States,  with  ample  knowledge  of  the  facts,  I  believe  such 
transfer  ought  to  be  made. 

There  are  many  and  cogent  reasons,  the  first,  and  most  important  of 
which,  is,  that  the  present  management  has  failed  in  the  objects  for  which 
the  Indian  Bureau  was  instituted. 

The  fair  trial  of  thirty  years  during  which  the  Interior  Department  has, 
through  its  Indian  Bureau,  had  control,  has  resulted  in  what? 

The  mental  condition  of  the  Indian  has  improved  so  inappreciably  as  to 
be  undiscoverable,  (except  in  the  reports  of  interested  agents  and  em 
ployees,)  while  socially  and  morally  he  has  seriously  retrograded.  The 
country  has  been  kept  in  an  almost  continued  state  of  war,  and  the  Gov 
ernment  forced  to  the  unnecessary  expenditure  of  millions  of  dollars. 

However  much  opinions  may  differ  as  to  how,  and  by  whom,  the  Indians 
should  be  managed,  there  is,  among  disinterested  persons  cognizant  of  the 
facts,  but  one  opinion  as  to  the  absolute  incompetency  of  the  Bureau  as  now 
constituted  to  the  task  assigned  it,  and  the  duty  of  the  Government  to 
take  the  management  of  the  Indians  out  of  its  hands. 

The  question  then  naturally  arises,  "into  whose  hands  shall  this  most 
important  trust  be  confided  ?"  and  the  answer  as  naturally  presents  itself, 
"  to  that  branch  of  the  Government  which  has  to  live  with  the  Indians,  and 
is  therefore  most  interested  in  their  civilization  and  progress  ;  which  has  to 
fight  them  and  is  therefore  most  interested  in  maintaining  peace — the 
Army. ' ' 

It  has  been  said  by  those  opposed  to  this  transfer,  that  the  officers  of  the 
army  would,  if  placed  in  control  of  the  Indians,  foster  Indian  wars,  either 
in  the  hope  of  winning  renown,  or  from  the  bloodthirsty  disposition  popu 
larly  supposed  to  belong  to  professional  soldiers.  No  more  arrant  nonsense 
was  ever  advanced  as  argument.  Indian  wars  yield  little  glory  or  reward 
even  to  the  most  brilliant  success,  and  they  entail  the  hardest  and  most  un 
satisfactory  kind  of  hard  work,  attended  with  every  privation,  discomfort, 
and  danger.  Soldiers  are  paid  for  this,  but  they  like  it  as  little  as  other 
people  do.  In  over  thirty-three  years  of  service,  I  have  never  yet  encoun 
tered  a  blood-thirsty  soldier ;  one  who  loved  war,  for  war's  sake.  On  the  con 
trary,  the  sympathy  of  the  army  is  ever  on  the  side  of  the  Indian.  We  see 
their  ill-treatment,  their  trials,  privations,  and  sufferings,  and  the  officer 
most  active  and  energetic  in  his  pursuit  of  marauding  Savages,  would  hail 
with  joy  an  order  to  turn  his  sword  against  the  white  reprobates  whose  ras 
cality  or  inefficiency  brought  on  the  trouble. 

In  an  economic  point  of  view,  the  transfer  of  the  Indians  to  the  War 
Department  would  be  most  advantageous.  The  army  is  furnished  with  a 
machinery  for  administration  and  supply  more  perfect  than  that  of  any  other 


29 

branch  of  service,  and  of  capacity  largely  in  excess  of  the  demands  upon 
it.  Vast  as  is  the  business  of  the  Indian  Bureau,  it  would  be  performed 
without  hitch  or  jostle,  and  its  whole  machinery,  now  cumbersome,  ex 
pensive,  and  inadequate,  would  at  once  he  replaced  by  the  simple  and  effi 
cient  routine  of  the  army. 

It  is  impossible  to  discover  from  the  report  of  the  Indian  Commissioner, 
or  any  other  document  to  which  I  have  had  access,  exactly  how  many  sal 
aried  officers  are  employed  in  the  Indian  Bureau,  or  what  amount  is  paid 
to  each.  We  know,  however,  that  the  Commissioner  himself,  several  in 
spectors,  some  seventy  agents,  a  number  of  superintendents,  and  possibly 
many  others,  can,  with  advantage  to  the  Government,  be  replaced  by  offi 
cers  of  the  army,  thus  saving  several  hundred  thousand  dollars  each  year 
in  salaries  alone. 

We  will  suppose  the  transfer  effected.  Every  military  post  in  the  In 
dian  country,  or  on  an  Indian  reservation,  becomes  at  once  an  agency,  sav 
ing  enormous  expenses  in  the  erection  of  agency  buildings,  quarters  for 
officials,  storehouses,  &c.  Every  commander  of  such  a  post  is,  ex  qfficio, 
superintendent  of  Indian  affairs  on  that  reservation,  or  in  that  vicinity, 
and  is  responsible  only  to  his  military  superiors.  The  office  of  agent  is  ob 
solete,  the  commanding  officer  selecting  an  officer  from  his  command  to  be 
the  quartermaster  and  commissary  of  Indian  stores. 

In  case  Congress  passes  laws  for  the  government  of  the  Indians,  the  com 
manding  officer  is  invested  with  magisterial  functions.  'As  civil  and  military 
governor  he  has  entire  control  of  both  whites  and  Indians  on  the  reserva 
tion.  Having  all  power  he  would  property  be  held  directly  responsible, 
not  only  for  the  well  being,  but  for  the  good  conduct  of  the  Indians  ;  and 
should  he  fail  in  either  direction,  the  department  commander  can  at  once 
remedy  the  evil  by  detailing  another  officer  to  command  the  post. 

Owing  to  the  very  small  effective  force  of  our  army,  and  the  vast  expanse 
of  territory,  far  the  heaviest  portion  of  army  expense  is  in  the  one  item  of 
transportation.  Nine-tenths  of  that  expense  is  caused  by  the  ignorance » 
inexperience,  and  blunders  of  Indian  agents  ;  possibly  conscientious,  well- 
meaning  men.  The  Ute  troubles  have  cost  the  country  many  valuable 
lives,  and  many  millions  of  dollars  in  money.  Had  the  White  Kiver 
agency  been  a  military  post  of  even  four  companies,  and  its  commander 
civil  and  military  governor  of  the  Indians,  all  this  expense  would  have 
been  saved. 

As  a'friend  of  the  Indians  I  cannot  too  strongly  urge  their  transfer  to 
the  War  Department.  The  tribal  government,  the  only  controlling  in 
fluence  hitherto  known  to  the  Indians,  while  simple,  patriarchal,  and  gen 
erally  mild,  recognized  force  as  its  central  and  fundamental  idea.  How 
ever  independent  the  individual,  he  realized  the  fact  that  there  existed  a 
power  which  he  could  disobey  only  on  peril  of  his  life.  His  admiration  for 
and  fealty  to  his  chief  were  a  reflex  of,  and  exactly  in  proportion  to,  the 
military  and  administrative  power  of  that  chief.  A  chief  who  could  not 


fight  had  no  following  ;  a  chief  who  could  not  control  had  no  control.  His 
brother  warriors  stood  in  his  estimation  as  they  ranked  in  military  renown  ; 
his  associates  were  men  of  his  own  stamp,  and  for  the  man  who  could  not  or 
would  not  fight  he  had  nothing  but  contempt. 

The  United  States  Government  assumes  his  direct  control,  and  sets  over 
him,  as  its  representative,  a  man  who  talks  only  of  peace,  with  no  knowl 
edge  of  or  care  for  warlike  fame,  and  who  possibly  is  scarcely  able  to 
mount  a  horse — a  chief  without  a  following,  a  ruler  without  force. 

What  wonder  if  the  Indian  blood  rebels  against  such  control,  or  if  he 
has  contempt  not  only  for  the  representative,  but  for  the  government  which 
selects  such  men  to  rule  him.  This  contempt  is  a  constant  incentive  to 
resistance  and  rebellion.  The  peace  talk  of  the  agent  is  ascribed  to  fear, 
tempting  the  Indian,  (who  is  an  inherent  bully,)  to  say  or  do  something 
still  further  to  intimidate  him.  Under  tribal  government  fear  was  the  soli 
tary  restraining  influence  known  to  Indians.  The  substitution  of  a  strong 
white  chief  for  the  strong  red  chief,  whose  orders  he  has  been  accustomed 
to  obey,  will  elevate  the  United  States  Government  in  his  estimation,  and 
have  the  most  beneficent  effect  on  his  conduct  and  character. 

One  of  the  strongest  reasons  for  placing  the  Indians  under  the  control  of 
the  War  Department  has  its  foundation  in  the  peculiarities  of  the  average 
American  citizen,  forever  like  moths  to  a  candle,  to  be  attracted  by  the 
specious  cry  of  "economy."  Not  that  the  people  really  eare  about  econ 
omy,  but  all  political  parties  founding  their  claims  to  votes  on  the  clap-trap 
"  economy  and  reform,"  have  misled  and  debased  the  people,  until  they  are 
ready  to  applaud  any  dirty  act  if  the  doer  can  show  that  a  dollar  was  saved 
by  it. 

Scarcely  a  measure  is  taken  by  persons  in  public  life,  but  is  based  on  the 
contemptible  expectation  of  catching  votes  by  showing  its  economy. 

That  he  may  be  able  to  show  that  he  is  economizing,  the  Commissioner 
of  Indian  Affairs  cuts  to  starvation  point  the  estimates  of  the  agents  di 
rectly  in  charge  of  the  Indians.  To  be  able  to  show  to  their  constituents 
their  economy,  Congressmen  cut  down  still  further  the  already  inadequate 
demands  of  the  Commissioner.  If  the  starved  Indians  rebel,  the  army  is 
set  against  them  at  enormous  expense,  which  is  quietly  covered  by  a  defi 
ciency  bill  next  session.  Nobody  ever  thinks  of  inquiring  into  the  original 
cause  of  the  necessity  of  a  deficiency  bill ,  or  if  some  too  curious  individ 
ual  should  ask  some  troublesome  questions  about  it,  the  whole  blame  is  at 
once  laid  upon  that  "relic  of  despotism,"  the  army. 

It  costs  ten  times  more  to  fight  the  Indians  than  it  would  to  feed  them, 
but  to  feed  them,  the  appropriation  must  not  only  be  open  and  direct,  but 
possibly  larger  than  on  previous  years,  thus  precluding  the  claim  to  "  econ 
omy,"  and  giving  their  adversaries  opportunity  to  cry  out  against  their  ex 
travagance. 


31 


I  have  endeavored  in  the  foregoing  pages  to  show  by  statements  of  facts, 
and  arguments  founded  upon  them,  that  the  present  policy  of  the  Govern 
ment  in  its  intercourse  with,  and  "control  and  management"  of,  the  In 
dians,  is  an  utter  failure.  Grouping  these  facts,  I  believe  to  be  true,  even 
if  I  have  failed  to  show — 

That  while  the  management  of  the  Indians  by  the  General  Government 
is  probably  better  for  them  than  State  control  would  have  been,  it  is, 
through  the  fault  of  a  system  of  Government  which  pays  little  attention  to 
the  rights  of  those  who  have  no  votes,  no  representation,  and  no  redress  in 
the  courts,  a  complete  failure  as  a  policy. 

That  the  Indian  is  in  a  stage  of  advancement,  common  at  some  time  in 
their  history  to  all  nations  and  peoples  ;  that  the  efforts  made  for  his  ad 
vance  in  civilization  have  so  far  failed  of  beneficial  result,  not  from  excep 
tional  stupidity,  or  barbarism,  or  other  peculiarity  of  the  subject,  but  be 
cause  they  have  been  ill-directed,  and  because  there  is  more  money  to  be 
made  of  him  by  leaving  him  as  he  is. 

That  the  "  treaty  system  "  means  simply  Governmental  stultification  ;  that 
the  Indian  tribes  are  not  independent  governments,  and  cannot  be  made  so 
by  any  trick  of  rhetoric ;  and  that  it  is  only  a  legal  cover  for  deceit,  chi 
canery,  and  fraud. 

That  our  trade  and  intercourse  laws  are  obsolete  and  ineffective  for  good 
to  the  country,  or  for  protection  to  the  Indian,  but  active  and  effectual  for 
swindling  and  pauperizing  him. 

That  the  Indian  is  absolutely  our  prisoner,  debarred  by  our  act  from 
means  to  support  himself,  and  by  the  rules  of  war,  and  the  common  law  of 
humanity,  must  be  supported  by  us. 

That  the  selection  of  a  Governor  and  agent  of  the  Indian  tribes,  simply 
because  he  is  an  eminently  pious  man,  is  an  absurdity  in  itself,  a  fraud  on 
the  Indians,  and  a  disgrace  to  the  Government. 

That  no  man  will  work  simply  for  the  love  of  work,  and  that  if  the  Gov 
ernment  really  desires  the  advancement  of  the  Indian,  it  must  give  him  an 
object,  an  incentive — a  farm  in  severalty. 

That  the  ballot  in  this  country  is  the  best  protective,  and  that  the  Indian, 
whether  worthy  of  and  fitted  for  it  or  not,  should  have  its  protection. 

That  if  given  the  ballot,  the  question  as  to  whether  or  not  he  should  be 
removed  from  State  limits,  will  lose  its  importance. 

That  the  isolation  of  Indians  on  reservations  is  bad  policy,  tending  to 
maintain  the  present  antagonism  between  the  white  and  red  races,  which 
closer  residence  and  more  freedom  of  intercourse  would  allay. 

That  it  is  not  to  the  interest  of  any  government  to  encourage  the  growth 
within  its  borders,  of  communities  not  owning  allegiance  to  it,  or  the  in 
crease  of  a  population  of  aliens  ;  that  the  independent  nations  in  the  terri 
tories  are  not  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  our  institutions,  nor  consistent 
with  our  national  dignity  and  honor  ;  that  they  should  be  abolished,  and 
all  the  inhabitants  made  citizens  of  the  United  States. 


32 

That  the  setting  aside  of  forty-one  millions  of  acres  of  magnificent 
country  for  the  exclusive  occupancy  of  a  few  thousand  Indians,  is  a  wrong 
to  both  white  and  Indian,  a  wrong  to  the  future  of  our  country,  an  attempt 
which  will  and  ought  of  right  to  fail. 

That  every  legitimate  effort  should  be  made  to  break  up  tribal  rela 
tions,  to  encourage  individual  independence,  and  a  sense  of  responsibility  to 
law  instead  of  to  a  chief. 

These  specifications  of  omission  and  commission,  with  numerous  others 
similar  to,  or  arising  out  of  them,  constitute  the  "  Bill  of  Indictment" 
against  the  United  States  for  its  treatment  of  its  Indian  population — a  popu 
lation  now  a  constant  cause  of  anxiety,  trouble,  and  expense,  but  which,  if 
properly  managed,  would  have  been  to  the  country  an  element  of  strength 
and  pride. 

*****  **** 

It  is  easy  to  point  out  the  defects  of  a  system  of  Government.  It  is  not 
by  any  means  easy  to  devise  a  new  one,  especially  where  the  people  to  be 
governed  are  a  barbarous  race,  long  accustomed  to  the  rule  of  their  own 
customs,  habits,  and  tastes;  whose  natures  have  been  embittered  by  fraud, 
defeat,  and  imprisonment;  whose  tempers  are  soured  by  constant  hunger. 

Long  residence  among  and  study  of  these  people,  have  enabled  me  to  ob 
tain  a  clear  idea  of  their  general  characteristics,  of  their  wants,  and  needs, 
and  to  form  an  opinion  of  the  kind  of  government  best  suited  to  their  pre 
sent  condition  and  necessities,  and  soonest  to  bring  them  into  the  great  body 
of  our  citizens. 

My  plan  for  the  future  "  control  and  management  "  of  the  Indians,  and 
solution  of  the  Indian  problem,  is  simple,  and  as  follows : 

1st.  Turn  the  Indians  over  to  the  War  Department. 

2d.  Abolish  the  Indian  Bureau,  as  now  constituted,  with  all  the  laws  and 
parts  of  laws  establishing  it,  and  controlling  or  directing  its  operations. 
Replace  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  the  Inspectors,  Agents,  &c., 
by  detailed  Army  Officers,  and  let  the  Indians  be  supplied  by  and  through 
the  Quartermasters  and  Subsistence  Departments  of  the  Army. 

3d.  Abrogate  all  existing  treaties. 

4th.  Abolish  all  "  trade  and  intercourse  "  laws  now  on  the  statute  book. 
Give  the  Indian  the  same  rights  in  trade  as  are  enjoyed  by  citizens  of  the 
United  States. 

5th.  Enact  laws  for  the  control  and  guidance  of  the  Indians,  until  they 
have  as  citizens,  come  under  the  operation  of  the  common  law. 

6th.  Make  Commanding  Officers  of  military  posts  in  Indian  territory  or 
on  reservations,  Ex-officio  Superintendents  of  Indian  Affairs,  and  give 
them  magisterial  authority  over  the  Indians,  so  long  as  they  live  in  unor 
ganized  territory. 


33 

7th.  Give  the  Indians  farms  in  severally,  not,  however,  requiring  each 
td  live  on  his  farm,  but  encouraging  them  to  form  permanent  village  settle 
ments. 

• 

8th.  Give  the  Indian  the  ballot,  and  the  rights  and  duties  of  citizenship, 
as  soon  as  the  country  in  which  he  resides  shall  have  been  organized  into 
a  county. 

9th.  Feed  the  wild  Indian.  See  that  he  has  a  sufficiency  of  food  to  sus 
tain  life,  even  to  the  exclusion,  if  necessary,  of  all  other  supplies. 

10th.  Break  up  the  Indian  principalities.  Make  the  Indians  of  the  most 
advanced  tribes  at  once  citizens  of  the  United  States,  with  all  the  rights 
and  duties  as  such,  giving  to  each  an  acreage  of  land  in  severally,  and  ar 
ranging  for  the  just  distribution  among  individuals  of  the  sums  now  owing 
to  the  nations  by  the  United  States. 

Whether  or  not  the  above  propositions  will  effect  the  end  designed,  will 
depend  entirely  upon  the  mode  of  carrying  out  the  first  and  second. 

For  some  years  there  has  been  a  great  deal  of  flippant  talk,  both  in  and 
out  of  Congress,  about  the  transfer  of  the  Indian  Bureau  to  the  War  De 
partment  ;  the  enemies  of  the  measure  being  positive  that  the  passage  of 
such  a  bill  would  be  the  utter  destruction  of  the  Indian's,  and  its  friends 
equally  positive  that  it  would  civilize  the  Indian,  cause  wars  to  cease,  and 
redound  in  every  way  to  the  advantage  of  the  country  and  of  the 
Indian. 

The  transfer  of  the  Indian  Bureau,  as  now  constituted,  to  the  War  De 
partment,  would  effect  nothing  except  to  saddle  the  War  Department  with 
the  onus  of  its  actions. 

The  Indian  Bureau  is  the  means  by  which  the  Indian  King  holds  its 
grip  on  power ;  the  means  by  and  through  which  are  perpetrated  upon  the 
Indian  most  of  the  wrongs  and  outrages  which  I  have  described.  Its  de 
fects  and  wrongs  are  inherent  to  itself,  have  "  grown  with  its  growth,  and 
strengthened  with  its  strength."  By  means  of  its  machinery  a  compara 
tively  few  men  swindle,  pauperize  and  degrade  the  Indian,  and  keep  the 
country  plunged  in  endless  war. 

To  be  effective  for  good,  the  change  in  the  system  of  management  of  In 
dians  must  be  radical.  The  Indian  King  is  probably  the  most  powerful 
one  in  the  country,  for  its  operations  yield  the  largest  profits  without  risk, 
and  with  but  little  investment  of  capital.  To  benefit  the  Indian  is  no  easy 
task,  for  the  very  first  step  is  the  absolute  necessity  of  breaking  the  power 
of  this  gigantic  fraud,  and  to  do  so  requires  a  complete  change,  not  only  in 
machinery,  but  in  men. 

Repeal  all  laws,  or  parts  of  laws,  organizing  the  Indian  Bureau,  or  di- 
recfing  or  controling  its  operations.  Do  away  with  the  Commissioner  of 
Indian  Affairs,  the  Superintendents,  Inspectors,  and  Agents,  and  break  up 
the  trade  of  those  amiable  old  gentlemen,  who,  (like  professional  bail-bond, 

5 


84 

and  jurymen  about  a  civil  court,)  are  always  hanging  around  ready  to  serve 
the  Government  as  Indian  Commissioners.  When  this  is  done,  turn  the  Indi 
ans  over  to  the  Army,  and  carry  out  the  propositions  heretofore  given. 

This,  in  my  judgment,  will  result  in  cessation  of  wars,  in  economy  to  the 
cotintry,  and,  above  all,  in  converting  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  sav 
ages  into  good  citizens ;  in  converting  an  element  of  weakness  and  enor 
mous  expense  into  an  element  of  pride  and  power. 


Having  sketched  the  general  outline  of  such  changes  as  I  believe  to  be 
just  and  necessary  to  the  honor  of  the  country  and  welfare  of  the  Indians, 
I  have  possibly  completed  my  task,  as  all  details  must  necessarily  be  filled 
in  by  legislative  wisdom.  I  cannot,  however,  refrain  from  adding  a  few 
remarks  and  suggestions  as  to  those  details. 

The  commander  of  a  military  post  in  Indian  territory,  ex  officio  super 
intendent  of  the  affairs  of  and  magistrate  for  the  Indians  in  his  vicinity, 
should  appoint  a  police  force  from  among  the  Indians,  and  make  the  chiefs 
and  old  men  a  sort  of  jury  for  the  trial  of  culprits.  This  will  clothe  each 
of  them  with  a  sense  of  authority  and  responsibility,  and  take  from  the 
procedure  any  appearance  of  unfair  imposition  on  the  Indians,  either  by 
the  commanding  officer  or  by  the  Government. 

As  superintendent  and  dispenser  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  the  command 
ing  officer  has  certain  influence  and  power ;  as  military  commander  backed 
by  force,  his  authority  is  increased  a  hundred  fold  ;  as  magistrate  with  an 
Indian  police  force,  and  with  the  chiefs  and  old  men  as  his  jurors  and  as 
sistants  in  the  administration  of  justice,  a  man  of  tact  and  discretion  will 
in  a  short  time  be  as  firmly  seated  in  power,  as  the  system  of  government 
will  be  in  the  affections  of  the  governed  red  men. 

In  a  very  little  while,  under  the  programme  laid  down,  the  Indians  will 
come  to  believe  that  they  are  really  self-governing,  take  the  liveliest  in 
terest  in  their  government,  and  be  more  zealous  in  ferretting  out  crimes 
and  bringing  the  offenders  to  justice,  than  white  men  would  be. 

This  is  no  Utopian  idea.  It  has  again  and  again  been  accomplished  to 
the  letter  by  army  officers,  (even  without  the  immense  advantage  that  a 
code  of  laws  would  give,)  and  it  can  always  be  done  by  equally  good  men. 


Let  the  Indian  have  his  farm  in  severalty  as  soon  as  he  evinces  a  desire 
to  settle  down.  An  immense  number  of  so-called  wild  Indians  are  now 
ready  and  anxious  for  this  step. 

The  number  of  acres  is  a  matter  of  minor  importance,  but  to  protect  the 
"  untutored  savage,"  (as  far  as  possible,  for  it  is  impossible  to  protect  him 
entirely,)  from  the  schemes  and  machinations  of  the  tutored  white,  the 
title  should  be  untransferable  for  at  least  one  generation.  Whatever  the 
number  of  acres  allotted  to  each  Indian,  (and  there  is  no  excuse  for  being 


35 

illiberal,)  give  to  each  head  of  a  family  the  right  to  select  his  own  location  ; 
and  many  families  should  be  encouraged  to  select  adjoining  lands.  This  to* 
provide  for  increase  of  families,  for  grazing  ground  for  stock,  and  the  bet 
ter  protection  of  the  Indians  from  the  whites. 

The  inhabitants  of  each  group  of  allotments  should  be  encouraged  to 
form  and  live  in  a  village  in  some  convenient  place  near  the  center  of  their 
possessions.  Indians  are  gregarious  and  fond  of  companionship.  To  force 
each  family  to  live  by  itself  would  be  to  render  all  discontented,  and  thus 
defeat  the  object  of  their  settlement.  Here  would  be  located  the  stores 
for  the  sale  and  purchase  of  all  articles,  the  shops  for  making  or  repairing 
all  farming  untensils;  here,  in  other  words,  is  the  nucleus  of  a  town.  Be 
sides  this,  a  little  village  of  twenty  to  fifty  votes  will  be  so  much  an  object  of 
interest  to  each  political  party  in  the  township  and  county,  that  no  injury 
or  injustice  will  be  done  it.  The  Mennonite  settlements  of  Kansas,  have 
demonstrated  the  peculiar  advantages  of  concentration.  Force  the  Indians 
to  live  each  on  his  own  land  and  they  are  scattered  and  helpless  ;  a  prey  to 
white  marauders  and  sharpers.  Settle  them  together,  they  have  the  power, 
protection,  an$  influence,  social  and  political,  that  concentration  gives. 

When  all  the  Indians  have  thus  been  located,  Government  should  buy 
from  the  Indians  the  whole  unlocated  remainder  of  their  reservations  at 
say,  one  Collar  and  a  quarter  per  acre.  The  gross  sums  due  the  Indians  for 
their  lands  to  be  retained  in  the  Treasury,  but  the  interest  is  to  be  paid  an 
nually  towards  the  support  qf  the  Indians  for  a  specified  term  of  years. 

All  the  lands  of  the  reservations  purchased  by  the  Government  from  the 
Indians  as  above  provided,  should  at  onco  be  opened  to  settlement  by  whites, 
and  as  soon  as  sufficiently  populated,  territorial  governments  should  be  es 
tablished  preparatory  to  their  admission  as,  or  incorporation  into  States  ;  the 
Indian  population  having  the  ballot,  and  being  recognized  as  citizens,  as 
soon  as  an  organization  by  county  shall  be  effected. 

At  the  end  of  the  stipulated  time,  (which  should  be  sufficiently  long  to 
give  the  Indians  a  fair  chance,)  all  the  money  received  from  the  sale  of  the 
Indian  land,  and  all  unsold  land,  revert  to,  and  become  the  property  of  the 
United  States.  Thereafter  the  Indian  must  depend  entirely  upon  himself, 
to  work  or  idle,  to  get  rich  or  starve,'  exactly  as  other  citizens. 

As  illustration  of  the  practical  working  of  this  plan,  I  give  one  example. 

The  combined  population  of  the  Cheyennes,  Arrapahoes,  Kiowas,  and 
Comanches,  is  nine  thousand  six  hundred  and  thirteen  souls,  (9,613.)  The 
total  area  of  their  reservation  is  in  round  numbers  eight  millions  and  ten 
thousand  acres,  (8,010,000.)  Giving  each  man,  woman,  and  child,  of 
the  whole  Indian  population  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land  in 
severalty.  the  Government  has  yet  left  of  their  reservation  for  sale  to  white 
settlers,  nearly  six  and  a  half  millions  of  acres,  which  sold  at  one  dollar  and 
a  quarter  per  acre,  will  bring  eight  millions  and  ninety  thousand  dollars, 
the  interest  of  which,  at  four  per  cent.,  is  nearly  three  hundred  and  twenty- 
four  thousand  dollars,  or  nearly  thirty-four  thousand  dollars  a  year  more 


36 

tjian  the  sum  appropriated  in  1880  by  Congress  for  their  support.  The  In 
dian  will  have  his  farm,  be  on  the  high  road  to  self-support,  and  yet  receive 
each  year  more  than  Congress  now  gives  him.  The  money  paid  out  each 
year,  instead  of  being  a  direct  drain  on  the  Treasury  and  the  tax-payers 
of  the  country,  is  the  interest  on  moneys  actually  received  or  to  be  received 
by  the  Government  from  sale  of  the  lands,  and  at  the  end  of  the  specified 
time,  not  only  will  the  payment  of  interest  cease  entirely,  but  the  Govern 
ment  will  cover  into  its  coffers  all  the  vast  amounts  accruing  from  these 
sales. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  new  system  of  Government  proposed  for  the 
Indian  is  extremely  simple.  I  give  to  the  wild' Indian  what  he  needs,  a 
strong  military  government,  backed  by  a  code  of  laws  suited  to  his  condi 
tion,  and  in  the  execution  of  which  he  is  required  to  take  part.  He  re 
mains  under  this  government,  partially  supported,  gradually  learning  the 
duty  of  obedience  to  law,  the  necessity  of  labor,  and  the  requirements  of 
civilized  life,  until  the  country  in  which  he  lives  is  organized  into  a  county, 
when  he  at  once  becomes  a  citizen  subject  only  to  the  control  of  the 
civil  laws.  The  present  system  degrades  and  pauperizes  the  Indians.  The 
plan  I  propose  will,  I  believe,  make  him  an  independent  man  and  good 
citizen  by  the  time  one  generation  has  passed. 


To  the  American  citizen  of  to-day  there  are  but  three  living  issues  ;  three 
questions  on  which  intelligent  men  may  so  far  differ  as  to  be  willing  to 
violate  the  laws,  to  jeopardize  reputation — even  life  itself. 

The  first,  like  the  poor,  "  ye  have  always  with  you."  The  conflict  be 
tween  labor  and  capital  is  a  necessity  of  civilization  ;  and,  as  greed  is  one 
of  the  most  powerful  factors  of  human  nature,  this  question  will  remain 
unsettled  until  "  time  shall  be  no  more." 

The  second,  is  that  "  twin  relic  "  polygamy,  which  must  and  will  yield 
to  the  advance  of  a  higher  civilization  and  purer  morality. 

The  third,  in  its  direct  influence  on  the  citizen,  but  the  first,  so  far  as  the 
honor  of  the  nation  is  involved,  is  the  Indian  question. 

Heretofore  the  mass  of  our  citizens  have  felt  no  direct  interest  in  this 
question.  A  conflict  has  been  waged  for  a  hundred  years  between  the 
actual  settlers  of  the  frontier,  who  could  see  nothing  for  the  Indian  but 
extermination,  and  the  humanitarians  who  have  set  up  an  ideal  Indian  so 
good  and  noble  that  civilization  and  education  can  scarcely  improve  him. 
The  combatants,  however  hostile,  never  fought  on  the  same  field,  nor 
could  they  see  the  cause  of  conflict  from  the  same  stand-point. 

A  class  of  people,  few  in  numbers,  but  strong  in  the  discipline,  the 
unity  of  plunder,  has  taken  advantage  of  this  situation.  Getting  the  control 
of  Indian  affairs  into  its  hands,  it  has  managed  to  retain  that  control  by 


37 

artfully  fomenting  the  dissentions  of  the  really  earnest  thinkers  on  both 
sides,  gaining  strength  from  both,  and  manipulating  so  skilfully,  as  to  have 
acquired  a  power  which  neither  President  nor  Congress  seems  to  dare  to 
question.  This  power  must  be  broken,  or  the  Indian  is  doomed.  Fron 
tiersmen  have  failed  in  their  schemes  of  extermination  ;  the  humanitarian 
Utopia  has  not  been  reached  ;  but  the  Indian  is  still  swindled,  pauperized, 
degraded. 

Our  country  is  ruled  by  politicians,  most  of  whom  are  occupied  with 
plans  for  re-election,  and  very  few  have  the  courage  to  take  sides  in  a  living 
issue.  It  is  too  much  to  expect  any  one  of  these  to  risk  the  loss  of  votes 
and  thus  jeopardize  his  future  career  for  a  miserable  savage.  Politicians 
will  do  nothing  unless  forced  to  it  by  the  great,  brave,  honest,  human  heart 
of  the  American  people. 

To  that  I  appeal  !  To  the  press  ;  to  the  pulpit ;  to  every  voter  in  the  land  ; 
to  every  lover  of  mankind.  For  the  honor  of  our  common  country  ;  for  the 
sake  of  suffering  humanity  ;  force  your  representatives  to  meet  this  issue. 
Deliver  the  Indian  from  his  pretended  friends,  and  lift  him  into  fellow 
ship  with  the  citizens  of  our  loved  and  glorious  country. 


OUR  WILD  INDIANS," 


A    PQPUUAB   AC<  <>rNT  (>F  THKli; 


BELIQION.  HABITS,  TRAITS.  CUSTOMS.  SOCIAL  LIFE.  k.  &c.. 


TI1K    KIX'I.T    of 


•33  YEARS  EXPERIENCE  OX  THE  PLAINS 


_\M>    IX     I'HK 


MOUNTAINS  OF  THE  FAR  WEST. 


COL.  RICHARD  IRVING  DODGE,  U.S.A., 


U  ITU    AN    INTKOIUiTHiX    BY 


GENERAL  SHERMAN. 


Col.  Dodge  has  succeeded  in  presenting  a  work  as 

entertaining  as  a  well  told  history,  as  charming  as  a  well  written 
<-s<ay,  and  as  attractive  as  an  intensely  interesting  novel. — N.  1'. 
Commercial  Advertiser. 


HARTFORD,   CONN.  : 

A.    I).   WORTH  I. \GTOX  &  COMPANY. 

A.  G.  XETTLKTON  ,V  Co..  Chicago,  111.         C.  C.  XICH  ^  Co.,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

X.  1).  THOMISON  ^  Co.,  St.  Louis,  Mo.       A.    L.    DAXCROFT  «\:   Co.,  San  Fran 
cisco,  California. 


